For years now, the media, self-help gurus, and stressed-out workers have thrown around the key term work-life balance. And, for years, experts have generated explanations and strategies in response to our culture’s desperate need to set boundaries that allow employees to live more fulfilling lives. Many of these strategies work on a fairly universal basis, but, what work-life balance means varies for every industry and person. No matter how many definitions you might read, finding work-life balance happens on a personal level that depends on each worker’s life circumstances, personality, and profession.
Thus, when starting on your journey to achieving work-life balance, your colleagues, who presumably work in a similar setting as you, provide a valuable resource for crowdsourcing strategies to try out. At AptAmigo, our apartment locators experience daily challenges to their work-life balance, so we went straight to the source and asked them how, in their job, they achieve and maintain a healthy lifestyle both personally and professionally.
Related: What Is PropTech? and Alternative Careers for Real Estate Agents
Employee Demand for Work-Life Balance
The demand for work-life balance increased exponentially during the pandemic as the boundary between the two dissipated, and that desire continues to hold strong across all relevant industries. Employees, where possible, seized the opportunity presented by the rise of remote work to reshape their careers so that they no longer need to sacrifice the overall quality of their lives, and they express no interest in returning to the way it was before. Now, as the BBC recently reported, many workers prioritize balance and flexibility over pay and prefer to work with their employers to establish a schedule that “enables them to address their personal lives in the context of their careers, and create the life they want.” In other words, work and life don’t always happen in separate, unrelated bubbles, and people want their employers to recognize and adapt to that fact.
However, despite the growing awareness and push for more and new forms of balance, The New Yorker recently returned to the topic of how workers face new pressures as they navigate major life and world events. Cal Newport identifies the current phase of worker dissatisfaction as the “Great Exhaustion,” which settled in after the widespread burnout caused by the pandemic that then led to the “Great Resignation” and “quiet quitting” in the workforce, at least according to many vocal media sources. The driver of this new state of exhaustion? Constant online communication in the form of email, virtual meetings, and messaging apps, argues Newport.
Reality, however, likely takes on a more complex shape than these reductive labels suggest, with reporters only sometimes using them with care and thoughtfulness. As already suggested, many workers did discover a greater sense of control as their professions shifted to work-from-home situations, eliminating long commutes, reducing travel and food expenses, and allowing for workspaces free from the distractions of office life. Others, most certainly do suffer from fatigue caused by digital overload, not to mention childcare struggles, or any other number of work-related and home-related stressors.
Nevertheless, even without the extreme circumstances that plagued the last several years, you’ll likely find it well worth the effort it takes to establish a satisfying relationship between your work and home life, as difficult as it can feel to achieve that at times.
Challenges to Achieving Work-Life Balance in Real Estate
Apartment locators and real estate agents face many challenges to maintaining balance in their lives. But, with self-reflection, attentiveness, and some key strategies, they do manage to create a healthier lifestyle. In real estate, and apartment locating in particular, a few major difficulties stand out above the rest.
Schedule and Work Hours:
A truism for so many industries and so many workaholics, putting in long hours that lead to exhaustion and burnout never ends well for employees or their employers. So, perhaps the biggest challenge, and one that really encompasses all of the items listed here, looms the potential for overworking.
But, what does that mean in real estate? Our apartment locators highlight the need to be available for clients at all times, including odd hours. Their schedules also take up nights and weekends, when clients get off of work and can sit down to perform their apartment hunt and attend tours. For many locators, that makes it difficult to separate work hours and home life.
Time Management:
Tied to scheduling and hours worked, effective time management is fundamental to a successful career, but not easy to pull off. In addition to spending time with clients on the phone and in person, apartment locators must set aside time for lead generation, follow up, social media marketing and advertising, continuing ed, and company meetings. Balancing all of those professional responsibilities within a reasonable number of hours each week requires a great deal of effort, practice, and trial and error.
Pressures of a Competitive Industry:
Many apartment locators feel the need to always be present and never clock out of work because the industry moves quickly and changes constantly. A short break feels like a missed opportunity. While understandable, that mentality opens the door to let imbalance creep in before you even realize it, and unhealthy patterns of behavior quickly manifest.
As Apartment Locator Kalyn Davis says, “A huge challenge for me is the current real estate market and the urgency required with such high stakes. Because it is extra competitive these days, you need to move quickly while always thinking each situation through. Someone’s dream apartment can disappear in an instant, and you don’t want to be the reason they didn’t get the unit they wanted. This situation compels me to be available 24/7, or at least want to be.”
These impulses to always stay present at work, although natural, will cause more damage than benefit to your physical and mental health. However, taking these pressures in stride and working out a system that introduces work-life balance into your routines is possible, and our locators provide some strategies to start trying today.
How to Achieve Work-Life Balance as an Apartment Locator
While general strategies for maintaining work-life balance will get you started on your journey to a healthier life, pinpointing practices based on your precise career and personality will take you the rest of the way. Harvard Business Review provides a good, research-based place to start:
“Our research showed that achieving better balance between professional and personal priorities boils down to a combination of reflexivity — or questioning assumptions to increase self-awareness — and intentional role redefinition. Importantly, our research suggests that this is not a one-time fix, but rather, a cycle that we must engage in continuously as our circumstances and priorities evolve.”
In other words, evaluate your needs and lifestyle, develop an actionable plan, and execute it, revisiting your strategies periodically to assess how well you are following your plan and whether any updates or alterations are needed. The concrete tips laid out by The Wall Street Journal also offer productive tactics to cope with stress and imbalance.
In addition to the general methods linked to above, we recommend seeking out targeted advice from your peers and mentors at work. In the case of real estate, and apartment locating in particular, our agents develop their own strategies in a career that gives them independence and flexibility, but that can also become all-consuming if adequate boundaries aren’t set. Our locators implement practices such as setting firm work hours to avoid burnout and establishing a daily routine that works for them.
Madison Webb, for instance, suggests “organizing all of your personal and work appointments in the same planner or calendar in order to avoid scheduling conflicts and to prevent working on your days off.” She also emphasizes a steady routine, “waking up around the same time every day, eating meals at similar times, etc.” to keep her schedule consistent and manageable.
Another one of our locators, Kalyn Davis, says, “I schedule breaks in my calendar and check in with myself throughout the day.” She also likes to color code her schedule to “see clearly how I am using my time.” Curtis Crowell also schedules breaks. His approach centers around technology: “I try to spend an hour a day without screen time, reading, walking my dog, getting outside, etc. Routine and consistency is key.”
Curtis also shaped his career plan early on, deciding to work towards better balance over time: “I created a game plan when I first started to really push myself my first 2-3 years, building my brand and working longer hours. Now, I am at a point in my career where the job also works for me. From past clients to referrals, I was able to create my own book of business that I could comfortably live off as I continue to grow my brand. As you continue in this line of work, the job gets easier in that way.”
Based on the feedback we received from our locators, scheduling and time management stand out as the most significant areas for setting boundaries, building routines, and creating a more balanced career in this industry. To maximize the impact of your effort here, don’t stop with these recommendations. Instead, reach out to your team to discover what they do to craft a life that works for them. Perhaps sharing ideas in a meeting will help everyone expand their repertoire of strategies and improve the lives and productivity of not only yourself, but also your colleagues and, by extension, your company.
Become an Apartment Locator at AptAmigo for the Best Professional Support Out There
AptAmigo provides training, mentorship, and a team environment for agents seeking a flexible career. No matter how much experience you have under your belt, it never hurts to continue your professional development journey in a community of driven professionals. Our locators work hard to make AptAmigo successful, but also acknowledge that we need to unwind and live our personal lives too. Apply today to join our team!
Read Next: Love Real Estate, but Want to Make More Money Doing It? Consider Apartment Locating.
AptAmigo is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and does not discriminate based on race, religious creed, color, national origin, ancestry, genetic information, physical or mental disability, medical condition, marital status, gender, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law, in connection with any aspect of employment at AptAmigo.
