One of the biggest reasons leasing professionals give for being unable to follow up with prospects as often as they should is they don't have enough time in the day. Yet everyone can agree that follow up is paramount to successful leasing. So how do we find the time for follow up?

According to Facebook's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, the average user in the US spends up to 40 minutes per day on Facebook*. Breaking up the day with 8 hours at work, 8 hours at home, and 8 hours sleeping, it stands to reason that almost 20 minutes of that Facebook time is during work hours. That's the time we needed to find! We can use those 20 minutes for follow up. Think of it this way- If you have time to Facebook, you have time to Follow Up.

Breaking the Facebook habit is easier said than done. It's relatively painless to jump on your phone to check email or your property's social media, and sneak a peek at your own feed. However, as you can see, those sneak peeks add up. So here are 3 tips to break the Facebook habit and reallocate the time to follow up:

1. Remove the Facebook app from your phone. It's too easy to justify a few minutes on Facebook when all you have to do is click to open. Removing the app forces you to open a browser window and log in. If it takes more effort to log in, you will be less likely to take the time. 

2. Ready your prospect list. Another thing that often stops follow up progress in its tracks is readily available prospect information. In the old guest-card-in-a-recipe-box days, it was easy to grab a stack and start calling. With digital guest cards, it can seem daunting to pull the information. Get help if you need it from your tech support teams and in advance, create a report with the prospect information necessary for proper follow up. Print this report every morning and have it on hand. 

3. Retrain your brain. Finally, condition yourself so when you think about logging into Facebook, instead you grab your printed list and you take follow up action. Do this every time.  This retraining of your brain will not happen right away, but it will happen.

Using these tips will turn 20 minutes on Facebook at work into 20 extra follow up calls, notes, or emails per day and a lot more leases!

Happy Leasing!   

 *Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/how-much-time-people-spend-on-facebook-per-day-2015-7