There’s nothing I love more than figuring out how to save time, especially when it comes to using the Internet. The Web has become an important part of every agent’s life, and using it efficiently can limit stress, save money and most importantly — cut down on your time in the office.
With that said, here are four easy tricks that you can use to save yourself time while taking care of everyday tasks. They take just minutes to implement, and over the course of a year, when combined, they will save you hours in the office.
1. Install Grammarly
Grammarly is a free Chrome extension that has your back when writing emails, blog posts or other documents.
We all know that good grammar and spelling will probably never win you a client — but it can definitely lose you one.
Grammarly is spellcheck for your browser, watching over your every keystroke to make sure that your grammar, punctuation and spelling are in order. Spend less time re-reading what you’ve typed and put your trust in Grammarly.
I’m still amazed at what it catches, and I’ve been using it for over a year now.
2. Set your mouse/trackpad to top speed
Here’s what to do.
For Windows:
Start > Control Panel > Hardware > Mouse > Slide the pointer speed to fast.
For Mac:
Spotlight Search > Mouse/Trackpad Speed > Set tracking speed to fast.
This might sound almost too simple, but it’s a top-of-the-funnel trick. Literally everything on your computer is sped up when you turn up your mouse speed, and though it might seem too fast at first, you’ll be flying after one day of use. Why go slow? Like Bruce Springsteen says, you were born to run.
3. Buy the best Wi-Fi possible
This is another top-level tip that literally affects everything you do on the Internet. People spend thousands of dollars on their laptops or desktops only to skimp out on their Wi-Fi — don’t fall for the trap.
Talk to your Internet service provider and ask them how you can speed up your Wi-Fi — it’ll save you time at the office every single day.
4. Set up custom search engines (Chrome browser users only)
Warning: This one is advanced, but totally worth it.
Make a list of the five websites you search the most (other than Google, Bing or Yahoo). For me, it looked like this:
- YouTube
- Zillow
- Google Drive
Maybe you use Dropbox, the MLS or Twitter more than some of the names I’ve mentioned, and those will work just as well.
After you have your list, follow the instructions below or watch the video.
Go to the top right-hand corner of your Chrome browser and click on the Settings tab. Now scroll down to Search, and click Manage Search Engines.
Scroll down to see your most used search engines, and look for the ones you noted on your top five list.
All you have to do now is replace the middle column with two symbols — I use y= for my YouTube searches, z= for my Zillow searches, etc.
Once you do this, you’ll be able to type in y=(plus a space) to search YouTube directly from your Chrome browser.
It’ll take you two minutes to set up and save you from loading up new pages every time you want to search for a video, property or document.
With these four tips, you’ll be on your way to saving valuable minutes every single day.
Be sure to tweet me @CaveJustin with any time-saving tips you use. Small things add up!
Justin Kerby is the co-founder of CAVE Social.
