Run Your Real Estate Business with a Smartphone using Information Management

From the time humanity started carving in caves through today, storing and finding recorded information has been a challenge. With the sheer amount of information we deal with daily, a system is needed to categorize and locate information quickly from where we are at the time. Most likely, the one thing that will be with us everywhere we go is our smartphone, so let's find a way to store, manage and find that information.

Let me introduce the phrase Mobile Information Management (MIM) to our lingo. I consider devices such as smartphones and tablets to be our definition of mobile. Information, which comes to us daily, includes contacts, your calendar, notes, reminders, documents, passwords, social media and even website information needing to be stored. For Realtors, think about all the information you need at your fingertips: MLS, info on clients, leads, maps and directions—the list goes on! Management of all this information is vital for many reasons.

Let's compare your brain to a cloud storage service. You have so many gigs of space available and once full, you need to either delete data or purchase more space. Sadly, we can't buy more brain, so we need to utilize what we have. The more data we store in our Mobile Information Management means that much less we need to store in our brain. An example is passwords—whether you use an app or take my suggestion and store it in a password protected note, you only have one password to remember, not twenty (more brain space!).

Some of you "old timers" remember the MLS books you had to lug around. Now, we have an app for that. Remember your daily planner? We have several apps for that. These are all examples of MIM, which clears so much clutter from your brain. Need to call Fred? He is in my contacts along with ice-breaker information. What day next week do I have Smith's closing? It's in my calendar. We need to go much deeper with information management beyond our apps, contacts and calendar, and we do this with Apple Notes or Google Keep.

The last words that should ever come out of your mouth are, "When I get to the office I will check on that. I believe it's either on my computer or a file folder on my desk." Every time you do that, you waste time in your day and appear to not be as organized as you should. Nothing, I mean nothing, should be any other place than your phone. It's so simple to take seconds and either copy or store the information where you can access it using MIM.

Recently, I finished a eight-part series here on RE Technology titled, "Information Management – An Important Part of Being Organized." Start there. Here are the other articles you should read in the series:

• How to Grab Text From an Image Using Google Keep
• Collaborating with Others Using Apple Notes and Google Keep
• How to Set a Location Reminder in Google Keep
• How to Overcome the Pain of Passwords
• Want to Use Mobile Scanner Software? Be Very Careful!
• Dictation, One of the Most Unused Features in Apple Notes and Google Keep!
• Apple Users: Let's Set Up Notes to the Max!

If you want to get the most out of your Mobile Information Management, take the time to read or reread the articles I have listed above!

Dick Betts is a national speaker, trainer and consultant. Learn more at www.DickBetts.com