Our blog features insights, tips and advice from industry experts.

For most of us in property management it’s no secret we are challenged with having a lot on our plates on any given day, and it doesn’t seem to be letting up.

Even the most experienced of us are continually surprised at how much more demanding and intense property management is than ever before…

We have more tech and tools at our fingertips than we have before but it also feels like we have less time than ever.

Our clients are more educated, and have higher expectations than ever before, and we are more available than we have ever been before.

It can feel like we are at the mercy of ever ding, ping and buzz trying to get our attention and so work seems bleeds into evenings and weekends. Sometimes it’s like there are no clear boundaries, you feel like you’re always on and your responsibilities never end.

And this is just the work pressures, not to mention the challenges and obligations we have in our lives outside, it can often feel like it never ends, living in a constant state of reaction and not feeling in control.

As a result, many of us can be left battling feelings of stress, overwhelm, anxiousness and unhappiness each day. Sadly a lot of these feelings left unaddressed can contribute to longer ongoing stress related physical and mental health problems

But the good news is that it doesn’t have to keep feeling this way. There are some strategies and tools that each and every one of us can practice that will relieve the pressure and help us become more resilient.

And that’s the empowering part, is that we can get better at handling it all, we can become stronger and can learn to do things better, we’re never stuck with the way things are.

It’s like the saying that says “you can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to swim”, those challenges and pressures in our lives will always come but we can get better at handling them.

So, how do we learn to swim?

 

Know your Stress Signals

The first step is awareness, we need to know when we are stressed out or overwhelmed and actually recognise that instead of pushing it away or pushing through.

Know what stress and overwhelm feels like in your body, is it a feeling, an emotion, a behaviour that shows up? Heart racing, depressed or snapping at people? What are the signs that is your body showing you that you’re in a stressful state.

 

Know what calms you

The first step before doing anything with this awareness is to bring yourself back to a state of calm. Typically we just push through but when we’re stressed out body and mind literally can’t function at their best (there is nothing wrong with us it’s just the way our physiology works as it goes back to our fight or flight response and its science that we are not best placed to handle things in this state).

We have to know how to get ourselves calm and bring our nervous system back to a calm state, things like pausing, breathing, going for a walk, meditating, talking it out, writing it all down, listening to music, working out, fresh air. Really anything that gets you out of the state you were in and lowers your stress and heart rate. 

Only from this place can you best handle whatever comes your way.

 

Plan to Prevent

When we are calm we can make a plan to handle any situation that has been causing us stress by looking at our options to not only handle it but maybe prevent it from occurring again.

We’re never stuck and can always look at things differently when we are calm. Maybe we can change our approach, change our attitude, get help with it, delegate it, deal with it or remove it.

 

Take control of your time

A lot of the stress we face is that we feel we don’t have enough time, and whilst we do all have a lot on our plates the majority of us could benefit from managing our time better to reduce that stress. Most of us could optimise our time management to ensure we better prioritise, plan and stay productive.

So, are you taking control of your days or letting your days happen to you. Do you map our your day, block out your time, have a schedule week to ensure you make time for what’s important? Or are you living each day in reaction mode. No one is coming to take control of your time, but you.

 

Get help

You don’t have to handle this all on your own. Ensure that you have people around you who get what you’re going through and can best support you. Try to ensure that as a team or office you have an opportunity check in outside of the daily grind to ask yourselves how are we going, what’s working and what’s not

If you’re in a smaller team or don’t have a team consider joining industry groups or getting a mentor or coach in your corner.

If you need help outside of work of course you have friends and family but also you have an incredible range of providers and services who can help you whether its counseller, personal trainer or financial advisor – depending what are you need help with to alleviate stress and bring more joy.

So consider how you might implement some of these strategies to help you become more resilient and overcome the overwhelm. Don’t let the waves knock you down and keep you down. Let those waves come and learn to bounce back faster, to duck, weave and swim your way through them and watch your resilience grow more and more each day.

 

And if you need help with that, I offer business and mindset coaching programs for property managers where we not only help grow property management business but give you the mindset and resilience skills to get there without burning out.

 

If you’re ready to go to the next level in your property management business, click here to book a free 30 minute discovery call.