Mastering Time Management: Boundaries, Balancing, and Routines for Mortgage Pros

As I've, as I've gotten older and more experienced in the business, I say no more and more. It's it's not as if I'm I'm saying no to a customer and wanna work with you, but it's just setting boundaries, like on Thanksgiving, or Christmas. I'm not gonna call a customer back. I'm just not gonna do it. Maybe I'll shoot them a text and say, hey, it's Christmas. I'm with my family. Let's talk tomorrow. And if someone doesn't respect that or understand it, that's probably not a customer I wanna work with anyways.

Hey, everyone out there. Welcome to another exciting episode of lending leadership with the mortgage pros. Robert Filho with HMA Mortgage here. Got, Dave Holland and Tom Mills joining me as always. Hey, fellas. How are y'all?

Good. How are you doing, buddy?

What's going on?

Living the dream as they say. Right? Fun and exciting things happen in mood and shaking. You know, it's funny. We're gonna be talking about time management, and we had a hell of a time managing to get this on the schedule. Right?

Lack of time. Easy, they said. One time

a week, they said. Yeah.

We we've, we it it took a bit to get us all here, and even now, we're we're behind the gun on on hitting the start on the record. So, timely topic for us today, no doubt. So excited to talk about this with you guys. Let's just kick it off. You know, one thing is I think about time management. I think back to my life and over the course of my career, and, you know, really, the the times that I did not have time management down nailed down and and really the chaos that ensued, not just in my business, but in my family life. I know we all know, you know, a lot of stories out there. We've heard the horror stories.

We have personal examples. I'm wondering if maybe, you know, it's not a bad idea just to start with with that as a little bit of base and then talk through some of, how we overcome that, order some of the foundational pieces we've put in place in our business, in our careers, to help manage your time and then what the outcome's been as a result. I think that might be a good road map for us.

Yeah. Let's go.

Of course, we'll get off topic a little bit. Alright?

I mean, time management sounds boring, you know, on paper, but it's it's kind of a dry subject, but it's an important subject in in life or work to be successful. So it's it's I don't wanna say it's a cornerstone of everything, but it's definitely one of the cornerstones.

It it it really is, Dave. And you I think you're right. It's it's boring. Like, when I think about time management, I kinda wanna take a

nap. Right?

But having said that, like, if you nail this, life gets infinitely better. Your business gets better. Your personal life gets better. Like, it just all improves. So while it's a little bit of, you know, minutiae, it is really, really important in every aspect of everything that we do. Yeah. No doubt.

I think your your schedule's kinda your lifeline. And, you know, when you think about time management, we're really talking about our schedule, and there's only so many hours in the day. And during that time, we have to sleep, eat, you know, and, you know, we've got really, you know, 16 16 hours to to work with. So how do we get the most of that? And then capacity. Everybody's got, you know, larger amount of capacity than than than some people. So I think it kinda comes down to some self awareness. You know, just whatever works for someone's schedule or someone's way of doing time management may not necessarily be the strategy that's, like, effective for someone else.

Because when you have a schedule and you follow the schedule, you are more focused. You don't get into, you know, with being a loan officer, the comfort food. Right? Creative avoidance. Doing stuff, that's easy, to do and not doing the hard stuff that's effective. So someone who works a 6 hour a day very hard and very focused is someone is usually better than someone who's working a 10 hour a day when they're jumping from 1 fire to the next. Mhmm.

Yeah. It's it's interesting that you bring that up, Dave, because I was just thinking that, you know, it's really about making the decision. Like, I've I've looked at time management, and it's really about making the decision to control your day versus letting your day control you.

Absolutely.

That comes to some hard stops. That comes to, you know, setting boundaries. That comes with time blocking. We're gonna get into all of these things. It also comes with being able to say no. Right? Tom touched on capacity. One of my favorite sayings, capacity controls everything we do. We're in a capacity based business.

There's only so much time in the day. So, like, if you don't set these boundaries, your clients, your referral partners, your teammates, they'll take as much as you let them. And if you don't have boundaries set, they're gonna take it. You know? I look back on my career, before and I'm not a master by any means. I'm much better now than I ever was. But before, I had good time management habits and would set the boundaries. And, man, I was a workaholic, and it was out of necessity because I didn't know any better, and I didn't set my time, and I would do those creative avoidant things. Right? I was that guy that worked Mhmm.

6 days a week from 9 in the morning until 6 in the evening. I'd spend an hour and a half, 2 hours with the family. They'd go to sleep, and I'm back working until 1 o'clock in the morning. That was 6 days a week. Like, how

And that's easy to do in our business. Right? There's always an email or a call sheet or a phone call. It it never ends. And as you ramp up your business and if you're a big producer, you can work yourself to the bone. I mean, I I did it as well too, and my time management was good. One of my bigger issues was I just didn't have enough time, and I had too much

to do. Well, it's interesting you say it was because, I mean, I I have it figured out sometimes, and then and then it all kind of falls apart, and I don't have it figured out. And you gotta kinda get back and and regroup. And that a lot of consistency in my life and a lot of like, routine. And routine makes, you know, time management way easier. And if you're going to bed at the same place, waking up at the same time, you know, going to bed relatively the same time, that that all becomes easy. You know? When, you know, you're going traveling, doing different things, have different family events, have different work events, you know, things get really, really thrown off. So, you know, then it's like I have to really question what is it I'm trying to manage in my time.

Am I managing the right things? And I think, you know, how you answer those guys, I think, is looking at, like, what are the 3 to 5 most important things you have going on right now? You know, life, personal, family, business, and look at your calendar. And does that tell you that? You know, how how evident are those 3 to 5 things within your calendar? You know, because if you're focused on those, that's where I've always had to do. You know? I can only do so much, you know, try to get help in the areas I couldn't. But, like, what is it I should be focused on? And and that's how I get through feeling not like a failure because there's a lot of things I didn't do. I feel like I've accomplished because those 3 to 5, like, priorities, they're there. They're existent, and and and they're very much a part of my calendar and schedule.

You know, Tom, I I love that. That's a great point. It's it's a different angle than I've really ever heard on the subject, you know, in terms of I mean, it makes sense. Right? Like, it's kinda one of those duh moments. You you prioritize based on what's most important to you and where where you put your time is always where you're gonna where your priorities lie. Right? So if you look at if if you really prioritize your your activities, and then time manage to make sure that those are your sacred cows, so to speak. Right? Yep. Like, my son plays football.

I'm going to be at his game.

Like, that's a bargain for you.

Nonnegotiable. Right? Like, regardless of what's going on. So, like, if you do that and then manage around that, it it kinda falls into place maybe even a little a little more easy than

It's worth it's worth

it's worth it to

say no. It's where it's where you have to be okay saying no. You know? And it's it's always been kind of what directs me. I think, you know, I think everybody loses focus on the on the just the task and 0 grace to themselves. And, you know, as we go into different coaching programs, a lot of common themes. You know, you should do this between this time and this time. That might not work today. Your son may have a game at that time.

You know, that's a nonnegotiable. It doesn't mean that if that was your most important, activity of the day, that because you'd normally do it at this time, it doesn't mean it doesn't happen. You know? And I think that's where people get whacked with time management. Like, I can't look at it and say any any with anything. I can't say I do this at 2 o'clock every day or I do this at because I don't know where I'm going to be. I just have to say I have to do this each day or each week, and it takes this much time. And sometimes tomorrow I'm figuring out tomorrow with how I'm shifting that time in there because something just came up and threw a curve ball. And you're saying, I I know something maybe sometimes they're already committed to.

I I love that. You know? So we talk about this a lot. So often, we have this all or nothing mindset. Right? And it's you know, I'm supposed to do, you know, I've got this on my calendar, and I didn't get it, so I'm not gonna do it at all. It's Mhmm. Well, no. I mean, if it's in your priority list, move it, find another day. Like, it still has to get done.

In some of that stuff, you have flexibility. Some of it doesn't. You don't. Right? So you gotta determine that.

It's like say it's like a doctor's appointment. Right? But if it's important and and you block it out, make it your number one priority to do it. And if you have an hour to make calls or meet people, make sure you do it in like like the football game or doctor's appointment. It's a nonnegotiable. You are not gonna miss it.

Yeah. We said routine. Like, when we all have routine, it's a lot easier. Like, what are what are some of the routines you got, whether it's daily, weekly? What are some of the routines you guys you guys do to kind of keep keep that in check?

I mean, when I'm focused and a 100% on, right, I'm at home, I'm not traveling, I'm getting up at 5 or 5:30, get up, read for half an hour or 45 minutes, and then go work out. And if I get those two things done, you know, if I read for half an hour or get up early, exercise, the rest of the day just lines up. And I feel regardless of what happened during that day, I accomplished something, and I usually accomplish it before 7:30 AM. And then the rest of the day just kinda falls in place. I know that's hokey wake up early,

extra No. It's not. It's not hokey at all.

True. When when I'm focused like that, I'm on all day, all week.

It's everybody guys, as you're out there thinking about this and you're you're talk you're actually looking at how you're gonna start managing your day, everyone's gonna have a different process and a different way to go about it. Me, like, I look at my calendar. I I try to go to the to to bed around the same time every night. I'm a little bit of a night owl. Right? So, like, 11 ish, I'm trying to go to bed. I look at my calendar. It's one of the last things I do every night and look at the next day and mentally prepare for what I have, make sure there's, you know, no no conflicts, you know, if there's anything I need to address early in the morning to move. And then the next the next morning, I wake up, take my kids to school.

When I get in the office, I have about 20 to 5th 15 to 20 minutes before we have our daily call that I literally just brain dump on things I wanna accomplish that day, calls that I need to make, people I need to touch base with outside of the calendar. Right? Because I'm really really passionate about space blocking my calendar and having fixed activities, but a brain dump and make my to do list. And then that's my outside of what's already on the calendar, that's my priority list. And then as what what sidetracks does is the incoming stuff. Right? That text message, that phone call, that fire on a file.

We have fires on files that happens here

some sometimes. Not often, but sometimes. Everyone has it sometimes. Right? So but all that stuff is noise, honestly. Like, it's distraction. So it's okay. Not everything needs immediate attention. I think we're in a world where everything is right now.

Everything's instant. It's okay. Like, you can prioritize your response. Not every

time you do

it right now.

That's creative avoidance. Like, oh, there's a fire here. I gotta talk to this LO or underwriter. You're like, that can if if your time block if you're at the doctors, right, you're not gonna step out of the room when the when the doctors examine you. So I got I gotta take this fire. You're gonna be focused on it. Right? It's it's, again, it's it's creative and void. And so, Robert, I like your point.

When I'm most on and I'm not usually this on, I spend an hour on Sunday pulling out my week, my top 10 or 15 goals. Before I go to bed, I write down my wins for the day. Now I don't do that very often, and I really plan my day and have the top couple goals for tomorrow.

I like the wins too. When I'm when I'm really

on, but I'm usually not that on. But Yeah. I'm gonna recommit to it.

I like it. Yeah. It's funny. You know, we're talking about the not everything needs immediate attention. How many times have we seen this? I had it happen yesterday. Right? We we were buried yesterday with calls and just different things, and there was a fire on a file that an an originator with us, a mild fire. Right? They they were kinda losing their mind and had sent an email and, you know, escalating. And by the time I got to it, it was 50 minutes later.

Right? Because we're on calls. By the time I got to it, it had already been handled, taken care of, wasn't even an issue. If they, like, if they woulda just not they stopped something they were in the middle of to jump in on that. If they woulda just paused for a moment.

Process work.

Let the process work. Right? It's interesting.

Wait. It's interesting. Robert, you said you used to like to you know, we mentioned how everybody's a little bit different. You said you like to do that in the morning. I can't really sleep good at night if I don't get that done, like my brain dumping. And then looking ahead, you know, you look at the calendar and you brain dump. I have to brain dump. I have to kinda start that do that to do list.

And then, you know, kind of before I get started, I kinda rereview that, jot a couple of things down, and, you know, kinda see how I work those those tasks I have around the priorities that are in the schedule.

I mean, again, this sounds a little hokey, but this is what successful people do. This is how you're more focused. You manage your time better. It's it's how you become successful.

You know, I've I say this about this. I'd say this about the DSP that we do. I say this on on, you know, a few other things. People that I have worked with who have implemented aspects of this and taken some of the steps we're talking about, I've never seen it not work and yield positive results. So, you know, it's it's a little bit of a commitment. Right? Like, let's be honest. This is not flipping a light. Nothing in our business is flipping a light.

So it's

not gonna have there there is no overnight success stories like that.

It's and you're and you're gonna poop the bed on it. Right? You're gonna you're gonna have days that just absolutely go sideways, and you're gonna beat yourself up, and you're gonna feel horrible. That happens, guys. Give yourself some grace. Give yourself a little bit of, you know, encouragement. And the the beautiful thing about time management is tomorrow's a new day, and you have a clean slate, and you get to try it all over again.

We're all we're all creatures habits. You know? So it's just, like, really you know, you wanna get anything better than anything. You just have to look at, like, what habits I think makes you better. And then not you know, don't try to do all those habits at once. Like, you know Gotta start small. You know, the whole theory of if you can't get up you know, you wanna start getting up at 5 in the morning, you know, start getting up 15 minutes early and all of a sudden, you know, earlier every day or every couple days, and and it becomes much easier. I think, you know, you gotta take kinda tiny chunks of things, you know, instead of a lot of time people look at time management, and they think, alright. Here's what I'm a do.

I'm a complete my entire schedule. You know? And then you come in and then you feel complete out of this order because

You're you're

Yeah. You can't catch up to anybody and and anything that's coming at you your way that day. Little things like I found, like, little habits I tried to do. You guys see, I schedule, like, 45 minute calls so I can have and try to stick to that, you know, so that I got 15 minutes to kinda have a little follow-up, like, in between. Like, if I can get that done, like, that that 15 minutes of just action time before that next, you know, thing I have to jump into is, like, a habit that really helps me. And then, Dave, you mentioned morning habits. You know, everybody's got a little everybody should have, I think, some way of their day starting, mental preparation, Robert, time with your, you know, kids on the whatever your, like, mental, like, preparation is, I think, reading, working out, family time, breakfast with kids, whatever that is, I I think, you know, that tends to lead to that. How you said I'm a better person.

I'm a I'm on more on dial dialed in that day. I think those habits are really important. Just kinda how you start the day. You know, one

one of the big things, hot topics when we talk about time management is is time blocking or space blocking. Right? And this is something I've seen a lot of people try and a lot of people fail. Right? Because it's what you just said, Tom, they overdo it. You you you overengineer it. So for anybody out there who's, you know, maybe tried this in the past and haven't hasn't had great success with it or maybe is thinking about trying it, I'm gonna tell you what worked for me as as I started down this path because I'm a big time blocker now. Start really small. Pick one thing. You know, we talk about that list of priorities.

Pick something that's in your top 2 or 3 priorities that's a routine activity and block that time. Just start with 1. Right? 30 minutes, an hour, whatever it is. Block that time and start executing on that. Right? And that commitment your commitment needs to be the same level as if you were picking your kids up from school.

100%. It's gotta be a 100% committed.

Gotta be a 100% committed. You're not if you're supposed to be somewhere to get your kids, you're gonna make sure you're there. Right? Most parents that I know. So start start there, start small, and then add as you get that mastered, add something else. Add something else. And the other mistake that people make is they try to space block their whole day. You should only have 2. You need

you need to do open time, some study hall.

Yeah. You you gotta have 2 or 3 blocks on your day that are space blocked, and everything else should be relatively open to to give you some flexibility because you're gonna have appointments come up. You're gonna have this come up. You're gonna have that come up. So if you're out there and you're trying to space block, those are some best practice tips that I'll give you that worked well for me and they've worked well for other people in the past.

Yeah. I was talking with some, recently in some of the coaching calls, you know, with some of our LOs talking about, you know, time blocking and, you know, where to you know, we all the things you have to do with customers. Right? Think about your actions and, like, prospecting. But then, you know, we have and they have interaction with customers. They have loan consultations and, you know, applications and, you know, locking loans and things like that. You know, I think that's that's important is, like, sometimes we think, like, we just have to hurry up and get things done right away for the customer. But, you know, as an originator, you have a, you know, you have a a job you need to do there. You should take an emphasis on to that, and you should really have time block with that and then schedule that time with the customer where instead of getting their loan app and calling them right away saying, hey.

I have, you know, between this time and this time or this time and this time to schedule your loan consult. When would you when would when would work best for you? And and, you know, that's reasonable because it's not like, you know, they pick up they don't pick up the phone and call their doctor and expect that, you know, right then they're they're they're going through everything. You know, you kinda schedule that stuff out. And I think that way you're more prepared for it. You feel more in order. So have those kind of slots too, not just slots of time that kind of work ideal for your prospecting, but that service time and that you know, time with your customers, you can control LOs who are more in control of that than they they believe that they

are. It's setting proper expectation. Right? If John Tice customer calls me at 9:0:3 AM to set up a call or they need a call sheet. I don't think it I mean, we obviously wanna have rapid service, but if you shoot that person in a text or an email, say, hey. Here here are the times I have open today. Does that work for your schedule? It doesn't have to be immediate. And that's back to the conversation of immediate gratification.

Well, the and this but not The the right. Exactly. This is the tangent. Right? Like, everyone wants instant. So and speed to lead does rule our business. No one will ever convince the other of us. So there has to be a touch. There has to be some level of response.

I got your call in a meeting. I'll be back with you at x time. Hey. Tied up right now. Really looking forward to talking to you because so many people in our profession out there, not just our profession, all professions never return calls. Like, people are calling you trying to give you money, and they don't return calls. We had a tree fall in the yard due to hurricane. I called 5 tree companies to get bids to get it removed.

One company called me back.

They get your bid? I get it. They get the deal.

They got the deal. I get it. They're busy. Right? I understand. Just hit me back and say, hey. We're buried right now. It's gonna take me 2 days to get back to you.

Well, how much more money would they have made if they just had somebody answer those calls those days when a hurricane ripped through and trees are all over the place, so they coulda scheduled people out days later? They just missed the call. There's the past days. 1,000 and 1,000 of dollars lost over missing that call.

So there's there's a great takeaway originators. You know, if you're out there and we've all had that happen. Right? You're in you're in a meeting. You're doing something, and you get that lead that calls that you can't answer. An hour or 2 hours later, you're checking your voice mail, and you call them back, and they've called Quicken. Right? So have maybe set up an answering service, scale a team member, something so there's some touch and acknowledgment, and they know you're coming back to them.

Quicken does Quicken does not have voice mail for incoming clients. It's the phone is always answered loud Always answered. 247,

365. Yep. Interesting. Little bit of a tangent there, but all all good, and it all goes hand in hand ultimately with with time management. Right? I think the other side of this too, guys, we touched on it a little bit, but let's dig into it a little deeper as the boundaries and and being okay with saying no. Right? Like, how many how many times have you guys asked to do something or be involved with something or, you know, maybe even it's a a a, you know, a day where it's like, hey. This person wants you to call them right now. And maybe it's not just saying no, but maybe it's saying, well, I can't do right now, but I'm gonna do this.

Like, you have to be okay with saying no and with setting your boundaries. Our this business, our customers and our referral sources, they will take as much time as you allow them to.

Yeah. As I've, as I've gotten older and more experienced in the business, I say no more and more. It's it's not as if I'm I'm saying no to a customer and wanna work with you, but it's just setting boundaries, like on Thanksgiving, or Christmas. I'm not gonna call a customer back. I'm just not gonna do it. Maybe I'll shoot him a text and say, hey. It's Christmas. I'm with my family.

I'm like, then I'm not your loan officer anymore. And that was the last transaction we did. I mean, that's that is reasonable that I'm not gonna be on call Totally reasonable.

Hey. And and totally empowering

for

you to to make to set that boundary. Right? Like, to totally empowering.

Yeah. I work hard. Right? But I I I need to sleep. I go to bed at 9:30, 10 every night. I'm not gonna take your calls till midnight. Unreasonable.

And and you know what? Here's what I'll tell you. The agents out there that need that loan officer to be on call until midnight or whatever it may be, that's because their time management sucks.

Yeah. Right? And it's No question.

And if you don't set the boundary, it's gonna bleed into your life. Like, I don't need you crazy. Keep that over there.

Nothing's gonna get done at quarter after 11 anyways.

Yeah. Right. Especially yeah. It's crazy.

So instead of no, you know, when you start talking about your time management,

I think

we all have those stories, though, right, where we set boundaries. Like, I know we've had clients call, you know, on a weekend and because their bank's closed. You know, I need a preapproval right now. And and you know, like, you know they're gonna just call their bank on Monday. I'm not interested in that. Like, that we're not gonna engage.

You wanna get paid for your work is what you're saying, Robert?

I mean, getting paid's nice. Yeah. You know? Beats a poke in the eye. But my my family time is too important. And are there some deals we've probably lost because of that? Probably. That's okay. That is okay. That's a whole different topic that we could go off on is not

paying attention to the mindset.

Right? Absolutely. Yeah. As we as we talk about some wrap up on time management, you know, we've kicked out some some best practices. We've talked a little bit, you know, about times when we didn't, making sure that we have grace. That's we've talked a little bit about, you know, when we have done it and just we use the term on. But let's talk about, like, some real world examples that we see that maybe we have to share of when we have time managed in in the positive results we've seen from it. Are there any stories like that that we have just off I'm putting us on the spot here, but that we can think of off the off the top of our heads to share.

Time management with positive results?

Yep. A positive outcome because of your time management.

I mean, I I look at loan officers here who I know throughout the country that are dialed in on time management, that do all the things that we talk about. I don't have a specific example, but those are the most generally, the most successful loan officers as opposed to the ones that run from 1 fire react all day. I agree.

You can't

you can't scale your business, if you're reacting all day to fires. There's just no way to scale it and do the marketing and outbound calls that you need to do. So that was a that was a general answer. Did I answer your

question there, Robert? Kinda. I've I've got what I'm gonna share. And and, guys, it's important to know that time management ebbs and flows. Right? Like, there's gonna be periods in in your career and and work life balance where it's dialed on, and then there's gonna be periods where it's not and you're you're scrambling to adjust. And that's part of this. Right? That's okay. I remember as we were going to branch, I had my like, so I had built my team and gotten to the point where, literally, I was working 15, 20 hours a week. Like, it was I had all the time in the world.

So I had time management dialed in and and had and had the steps in place also to be able to do that. And I look back on that trip, and it was one of the most amazing experiences, that we've shared as a family. And if if I did not if I had not done that, I hadn't recognized that my time management had gotten off, put the pieces in place, and then got it back realigned, I wouldn't have had been able to do that, and I would have been working that time. And it would have been a different experience for me and my fam my family.

Yeah. That's a great story.

I think, I could probably think really hard about an moment at some point, but I think what I what I see with it is is I don't necessarily always see an moment. I just see a a constant build of momentum as you move forward, like, as you manage your time, bright day by day, week by week, like, doing the things that, you know, you're committed to do to achieve your goals. You know, it's not like it's by no means an accident that, you know, you start to kind of move towards that. And and in the same sense, when you fall off of it, it's it's not a mistake that you started to fall off track of of of that momentum. You know? So I think that's what I kinda feel with it is, you know, you know, the the the tiny winds and how they kinda compound to the the big ones, I think, is really the the impact of it for

me. I like that. I think that's the the tiny wins equal huge wins. I think that's a great takeaway. Dave, I I I wanna acknowledge that you mentioned something about, as you get older earlier, and I I didn't take I didn't take the jab. I I I held back. So I just wanted to I wanna put it out there, and I wanna

You know, just for our listeners and our audience, me and Robert, I think, were two and a half years apart in Much older than You know? I was 20 years older than Robert. Much older.

I thought we agreed we weren't doing that anymore, but you couldn't you couldn't resist because you're out

right now. I did. No. No. No. No. I did resist, and I'm acknowledging that I resisted. We're supposed to be on you today, Tom, but we we didn't do that.

I I know. And I was prepared for it. I came guns blazing. You guys don't even know. I have both hands on the on the, on each side ready.

Hand on the button. Hey. Great great subject, guys. Good topics. Hopefully, everyone out there found a takeaway, something you can implement in your business. Subject that's beaten up a little bit, but definitely something that's vitally important to what we do. Thanks so much for tuning in to lending leadership with the mortgage pros. Go ahead and hit that like and subscribe button to make sure you never miss, any of our future episodes.

Robert Fillyaw, Dave Holland, Tom Mills, signing off. Thanks so much, guys. Thanks, everyone.

Thanks.