Some commercial real estate agents spend their days reacting, handling admin, and managing the details, and then wonder why their revenue growth has stalled.
Others focus on high-value activities that consistently generate listings, build client relationships and drive long-term income.
That’s the difference between being busy and being productive, and it starts by adopting the $1,000/hour mindset.
The Four Levels of Work
Every task you perform sits in one of these value tiers:
- $0/hour tasks: Inbox shuffling, unnecessary meetings, doom scrolling. Timewasters that drain momentum.
- $10/hour tasks: Admin, data entry, formatting documents, coordinating inspections. Below your paygrade; offload or eliminate.
- $100/hour tasks: Prospecting calls, database follow-ups, preparing proposals, conducting inspections. Non-negotiable to build pipeline (but not all this needs to be done by you).
- $1,000/hour tasks: Winning listings, closing deals, high-impact meetings, creating systems, building brand presence. These high-impact activities drive revenue and create leverage.
Top agents protect their time so they can consistently operate at the higher end of this scale.
The Busyness Trap
When agents get busy, prospecting is often the first thing to go.
But skipping prospecting today means fewer listings next month. That’s why agents who treat prospecting as a $100/hour task are the ones with steady pipelines.
It might not be glamorous, but it’s essential. Block time for it. Stick to it. Do it even when you’re busy. Especially when you’re busy.
Why the Best Agents Spend More Time at $1,000/Hour
Let’s talk about the tasks that make the biggest impact:
- Winning listings: The more times you pitch, the more listings you win. It’s the most direct path to income.
- Closing deals: Skilful negotiation adds significant value to clients, reduces time on market and helps cement repeat business.
- High-impact meetings: Do meetings where decisions get made and use meetings to guide your team (who then carry out work for you).
- Building systems: Documented processes free you from repetitive tasks and create room for scale.
- Personal brand: A strong presence builds trust at scale and attracts clients before you even make contact.
These activities might take time to master, but they create compound returns over months and years (which is what makes them $1,000/hour activities).
What You Need to Let Go Of
Here’s the truth: if you want to spend more time on high-value work, you need to do less of the low-value stuff.
Start asking:
- Does this task need to be done at all?
- If it does, does it need to be done by me?
- Could a process or technology make this faster next time?
Delegation and automation aren’t just for senior agents; they’re requirements for anyone who wants to grow.
If you’re producing six figures of income, you shouldn’t be formatting flyers, uploading listings, or chasing paperwork. That’s not how you get to the next level.
A Simple Habit to Shift Gears
At the start of each day, ask yourself: What’s the highest-value thing I can do today?
Then do it, before anything else (eat that frog!).
That small change, applied daily, will radically improve your focus and your results.
Summing Up
Most agents don’t plateau because of a lack of effort. They plateau because too much of their effort is going into the wrong things.
If you want to earn more, protect your time. Focus on prospecting. Prioritise the work that grows your business. And spend more time doing what drives results.
That’s how you shift into the $1,000/hour mindset and create sustainable growth in your GCI that lasts.
