This week we saw the Fed’s leave the short-term interest rate at zero to 0.25 percent even though we have seen a little good in the job market and housing arenas. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) recently released ‘Shopping For Your Home Loan, HUD’s Settlement Cost’ booklet. This publication explains the ‘Good Faith Estimates and HUD-1 settlement forms that must be used beginning January 1, 2010.

Also, don’t forget HUD’s FHA 203K, an FHA loan that enables home buyers to purchase and renovate properties. This week our Skirts’ feature is on Teresa Walsh, President of REB-uild USA, a designation/membership program that turns agents into 203k Specialists. Teresa and her husband Dennis have teamed up with home improvement retailer Lowe’s to make sure that Realtors and potential homebuyers learn about this great program. Take time to hear Teresa tell you about it.

On any one given day, I have so many projects on my plate that it is sometimes paralyzing. So, you can image my relief when I learned that there is proven, scientific, process for determining how to prioritize projects so I could determine the best use of my time.

Dr. Lang set the stage by saying that every business is riddled with constraints. And in most small businesses, the biggest constraint is YOU (and since I was the audience, that meant ME). She was referring to our time – and boy did I feel like she was pointing at me.

As entrepreneurs and business owners, we have been taught to believe that the sooner we start a project, the more quickly we will finish it. Well, guess what? That is not always the case. In fact, that is ONLY the case when you are working on one project at a time. The fact is that every new project you take on delays all others. So, the more projects you say ‘yes’ to, the more chaos you allow into your life and the fewer projects that actually get completed.

So, why do entrepreneurs – and bosses for that matter – think multi-tasking is good?

Because we have all been taught we must be efficient with the resources we have available to us. So we focus on efficiency.

Dr. Lang demonstrated the reason that efficiency isn’t always beneficial by using the analogy of cooking dinner.

This was her example:

You put a pot of water on to boil. As you are waiting for the pot to boil, you decide to ‘be efficient’ and empty the dishwasher while you wait. While you are emptying the dishwasher, you become distracted putting away the dishes, cups & silverware and do not notice that the water had already started boiling. In fact, it may have been boiling for quite some time before you noticed it. So, in essence, the outcome is that it will now take you longer to complete the task of cooking dinner because of the delay caused by taking on another ‘to do’.

She was very clear and tried to make us all feel better by telling us that these delays are born out of good intentions. But, while our intentions are good and we are really only trying to save time, the outcome is in fact, just the opposite.

In business, our primary goal is not to be efficient. Our goal is to make money. If that is not your primary goal, then what you really have is a ‘hobby’. And that is fine, but don’t fool yourself into thinking that what you have is a business.

The key to productivity is to focus on one or two projects at at time. The reason a second project goes on your list is because there are times when you will need to wait for deliverables from someone ‘other than yourself’ and it makes sense to work on another productive task while you are waiting.

The value of multitasking is over-rated. Multitasking just adds more stress to our lives.

Prioritization is the key – and with a little focus we can all regain some of the time lost due to multi-tasking.

Also, this week we saw Better Homes & Gardens double their size with the announcement of Atlanta Metro Brokers joining their family. Skirts’ member Wendy Forsythe, vice president of broker service for BH&G was twittering away about the successful launch in Atlanta. If you want to keep up with this brand make sure that you follow Wendy on Twitter.

If you are struggling about why you are in real estate, please read one of Skirts’ favorites Bernice Ross, make sure that you go to Real Trends’ Lore People Magazine and read her ‘7 Reasons to be Grateful You’re in Real Estate plus some awesome tips!’ It will inspire you.

As you may remember from my post last Friday, while at NAR I took the opportunity to use my new Flip Video camera as I was walking the trade show floor. This week I would like to introduce you to Martha Webb. She is a pioneer of real estate staging, an established author in our industry – ‘Dress Your House for Success’ and founder of BCW group which includes her ‘Certified Home Marketing Specialist’ course. Make sure that you go to her site to see if she is going to be in your market next year to teach this course. If she is, DON’T MISS IT!

It’s my pleasure to introduce Martha Webb to you.

Also, a few weeks back, during NAR, I promised to share with you information that I learned while walking the Expo floor. While walking the aisles, I ran into Skirts’ member, Ginny Mees, founder of Independent Women Homeowners and since I had my new Flip Video camera, I asked her how she balances her life as a small business owner, a successful REALTOR®, a wife and a mother.

Next week, I will share with you my conversation with Martha Webb, speaker, author and developer of the Certified Home Marketing Specialist Course. I promise that you won’t want to miss my live report!