As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact individuals and businesses worldwide, real estate and leasing professionals must now adapt to working almost completely remotely. (**Note: Be sure to stay updated on your local and state regulations to see if you qualify as an essential or nonessential business or service provider). 

Under normal circumstances, working remotely can be great. It allows you to get things done from the comfort of home, and it lets you chip away at the day's workload while your busy schedule keeps you on the go.

Under emergency circumstances, though, working from home can be overwhelming when you're not prepared. Even the most disciplined person can fall victim to the classic traps of remote working. For some, it's losing track of time. Others find themselves misplacing files in the daily rush.

If you encounter these problems, it's likely that you just haven't yet found all the tools you need to make remote working work for you. Here are two tricks and one resource you can use to make sure you get work done efficiently while you're working remotely:

Manage Your Time—Seriously 

It may seem obvious, but more often than not time well managed becomes time well spent. While most everyone agrees that it's important to manage time effectively, committing to this belief is something else entirely. Making a real effort to understand how you spend your work time goes a long way towards effective remote working.

Try some exercises to find out how you actually use this time. For example, set a timer for fifteen or thirty minutes; when it goes off, reflect on how you spent that time, and ask yourself if you could have done anything differently. If you feel a need to, spend a good week figuring out what time management techniques work best for you. You'll be glad that you did. 

Organize Your Files

Whether physical or digital, files can become misplaced when they are not organized. Tracking down lost documents takes up a large amount of time that could easily be spent productively. Ensuring that related files are kept in one location—a real folder or a virtual one—saves you time in the long run. Additionally, strong organizational skills show clients that you're a professional they can trust.  

Software That Does the Heavy Lifting

It's far easier to get through the workday when you have software that simplifies your most tedious tasks. Intellirent's software frees you up to do more meaningful work. Intellirent offers three complete services to agents entirely free of charge: Post your rentals across multiple listing websites with a single click using our marketing service.

Find out all you need to know about renters—no printer required—with our screening technology. Lease signing has never been easier thanks to our application management feature.

Intellirent streamlines marketing, renter info gathering, and organization, so you can breeze through the workday no matter where it takes you. Sign up today to work from anywhere with ease.