Colorado Real Estate Journal - September 16, 2015
Thirty-two years. That’s the length of my commercial property management experience. How things have changed. In 1983, our budgets were prepared on ledger sheet paper, typewriters were used for all forms of communication, and the telephone and face-to-face interaction served as our connective link to building tenants and clients. Energy management systems performed as a monitoring tool for basic building operations. Engineers carried paper preventive maintenance forms on clipboards. Some building personnel carried “state-of-the-art” pagers or beepers in order to be alerted to building emergencies. We focused our efforts on nurturing our interactions and relationships with tenants and landlords and to deliver quality service. We provided a safe and comfortable working environment for our tenants, and we diligently sought out ways to make our buildings efficient and marketable. Our days were always busy and it was not unusual to actually get away from the office for lunch. Thirty-two years later and the core industry really has not changed. Enter computers, smartphones, sophisticated building automation systems and analytic software tools that can tell you the real-time status of building operations at any given point within the building at any time. Innovative preventive maintenance software programs track everything from basic inspections and inventories to providing mobile access management of building operations that can be performed from anywhere at any time. Connectivity between management, tenants and clients is 24/7. Tenants communicate through email, building websites and, unfortunately, texting. In this hyper-connected environment, gone is the need to get up from your desk to facilitate a face-to-face meeting with your tenant. To ensure the email recipient receives the intended tone of the message, we can use emoticons. The human touch has become digital. Sounds like progress. Technological tools allow us the opportunity to handle and process a larger volume of data more quickly, be more responsive to the needs of our tenants and clients, and expand the breadth of our industry knowledge so that we are always apprised of the latest operating innovations. Due to the ease of immediate access enabling immediate performance, there should be little conflict between work and life balance. But, we are never disconnected. So, are we more productive? I’m not sure. We’re actually more scattered. Multitasking has become the norm. When was the last time you participated in a meeting where at least one or two individuals weren’t distracted by responding to an email or text? Studies on the subject of multitasking indicate that, on average, employees who routinely use computers for completing their daily tasks are distracted every 10½ minutes resulting in lost productivity. Correspondingly, multitasking by being distracted by email during the workday can lower IQ points by 10 percent. Recognizing the problem is the first step in taking back our productivity. Restricting “pop-up” email alerts was the first step in my personal battle with distracted multitasking. Since I’m not an emergency responder in a triage unit, I think I can go for 30 to 60 minutes without responding to an email. Secondly, when in meetings, our property management and engineering teams turn down smartphones and radios to avoid distractions. The meeting is focused and productive. The number of necessary meetings is reduced. We also have recognized that an individual employee may be productive at different times of the day. Try to assess what time of the day is most productive and schedule around that time and attempt to limit disruptions. Ironically, technology also provides various tools in which to limit distractions. Anti-Social is one app that can be used to limit or block disruptions. Software tools such as Rescue Time can actually show where your time is spent. But these tools can’t work without self-discipline and boundaries. Ultimately, we need to reevaluate our time-management skills and take a proactive step in recapturing our productivity.