How to Maintain Balance

Hamish Cropped Nov2014

An article by Hamish Turner.

It is a constant battle to maintain balance within the Property Management industry.   With a constant stream of work (rather like a tap ceased in the on position), the flow of work simply does not stop. And of course, the work itself can be challenging on a regular basis.

So, what are some of the things you can do in order to maintain balance, enabling us to go the distance? Regular time off over a 12 month period. Instead of taking a long block of annual leave off once or twice a year, you may like to look at having 4 periods throughout the year.

For those of you that do not take too much annual leave off, the first step would of be to commit to having 4 full weeks off a year. Another sound idea is to build in long weekends each month. 12 months with a 3 day break is ideal.

If you are reading this and saying “the phone still rings when I am away” – then it may be time to review who gets your phone when you are on leave! The idea of building in breaks means “no work” – allowing you to refuel. So, if your time off includes still working, what are some of the things that can be done to change or at least minimise this?!

Some other things you can do from an “on the tools” perspective include blocking your time for allocated tasks opposed to dealing with tasks as they come in.

This aids in productivity / time management and consequently energy levels. Turning your e-mail’s off at a set time each day. Leaving work each day at a set time opposed to “doing just one more thing”…..

Maintaining balance really does come down to time management. Managing your time yearly, monthly, weekly and daily – will enable you to have a best practice personal/business balance.