Striking a work-life balance that’s right for you improves relationships, health and overall happiness.

By Donna Shryer

Physicians and psychologists persistently extol the value of work-life balance — an existence that respects and nurtures both your professional and personal selves. But if you’re like most Americans, the natural response is, “How?”

Squeezing heavy workloads, valued relationships, family responsibilities and personal interests into one 24-hour day can feel like an impossible feat. And for those in real estate, striking a work-life balance poses additional challenges because the profession’s very definition revolves around other people’s schedules and demands. Clients call or text with questions at all hours, and contract offers require immediate attention. Online real estate listing portals have increased unscheduled requests for property viewings. And prospects can land in your lap at any time.

INSPIRATION TO UNPLUG

According to Mental Health America, about 1 in 4 Americans describe themselves as “super stressed” due to an out-of-whack work-life balance. As stress levels spike, productivity plummets, concentration suffers and risk for depression rises. Left unchecked, chronic stress can also weaken the immune system.

In addition, the American Heart Association reports that relentless stress can contribute to asthma, ulcers and irritable bowel syndrome, as well as behaviors and factors that increase heart disease risk, including high blood pressure and cholesterol levels, smoking, alcohol consumption, physical inactivity and overeating.

But few Americans heed the medical experts’ warnings. A 2014 Gallup report states that the average full-time employee works 46.7 hours a week, equaling nearly one extra eight-hour day per week. Four in 10 of those surveyed admit to working 50 hours or more each week.

Even with these facts front and center, the question remains: how does one even begin to find that elusive work-life balance?

TAMING TECHNOLOGY

There are myriad strategies to attain that coveted work-life balance, although for many REALTORS^®, taking control of technology tops the list. While mobile technology keeps you connected, it can also become an addiction that makes work an exhausting, all-day-all-night struggle, reports a study conducted by Helsinki Institute for Information Technology (HIIT) and Intel Labs. The study found that many smartphone users suffer “checking habits” — repetitive checks for missed calls, email, texts and social media posts. In worst-case scenarios, these checks can average 34 per day, and they are not necessary but can become compulsive.

This 24/7 connection to buyers, sellers, co-workers and everyone else in the real estate universe can result in the “pop-up REALTOR^®,” says Bob Leonard, CRS, broker associate with RE/MAX Associates, San Antonio, Texas. “The phone rings, you pop up out of your chair — or if it’s late at night, your bed — and you run to take the call, text or email.”

But the pop-up REALTOR^® isn’t doing anyone a service, Leonard says. The urge to serve anytime, anyplace, anywhere, he adds, only diminishes your reputation as a successful professional, and his advice is to turn off the smartphone during non-traditional working hours and set boundaries with clients and co-workers.

“Would you call your attorney at 10 p.m. with a question?” Leonard asks. “Of course not! You have a professional relationship with this person, so you call during business hours. I make it clear to my clients and co-workers that I’m a professional real estate broker, with business hours just like any other respected professional. That means I don’t take calls after 7 p.m., and I don’t work Sundays.”

As for the odd client who wants an agent ready to work 24/7, “I’m not their guy,” Leonard stresses. “The benefits of spending Sundays working in my yard, eating dinner with my family and relaxing with friends far outweigh the very small amount of business I may have lost because I set boundaries.”

On the off chance that ignoring late-night client phone calls, texts or emails makes you feel uneasy, here’s a piece of advice from Vince Price, CRS, broker associate with Coldwell Banker in Panama City, Florida. “Often that late-night call or text isn’t a client being inconsiderate. They’re over-thinking something, or they have questions dancing around in their head after a showing — all matters that can wait until the morning. So I remind myself that it’s after hours, it’s not an emergency and there’s just so much I can do in one day.”

FINDING YOUR SOLUTION

Deborah Reed, CRS, broker associate at Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in San Diego, California, feels that boundaries are easier to stick to when the result is more time for something that ignites your mind and naturally holds your undivided attention.

In most cases, Reed stresses, the activity as well as time available for that activity will be different for different people, which means a formulaic approach to work-life balance often backfires. “You can’t wake up and say I’m going to spend three hours every day doing this or that. Forcing the issue can be more nerve-wracking than balancing — especially in real estate,” Reed says. “We don’t track our success by the hour, day or week. It’s more about the year. So for me, I take a broader view of work-life balance. Was it a good year? Did I succeed in my job and also fulfill my own personal needs?”

EVERY MINUTE COUNTS

For Reed, last year was a very good year. She met her professional goals and also published her first novel, The Chamber And The Cross, co-written with a writing partner.

Completing the novel while also maintaining a successful real estate career, did involve blocking out some fixed writing time, including every Sunday afternoon with her writing partner and every Thursday evening for her novel writing group, but it also included countless hours of what Reed calls “found time.”

Found time, Reed explains, is unexpected and unplanned downtime. For example, it could be when a client cancels the afternoon showings you scheduled. “We all get those phone calls! But instead of feeling frustrated and seeing the entire afternoon as a waste, I use that time to write. I grab my laptop, head to a coffee shop and grant myself full permission to enjoy a couple of hours devoted only to writing.”

As she takes a seat in the coffee shop, Reed hears conversations, loud over-head music and the door opening and closing. She puts her phone on silent and places it face down on the table — but admits to peeking every few minutes. “Once I get into my writing, though, I forget about the phone and I don’t hear a sound. Writing has my undivided attention. Suddenly it’s three hours later, it’s time to go back to work and I feel balanced!”

Price is another fan of found time, although he can’t wait for it to arrive serendipitously. He hunts it down. As a diehard jazz fan, who has attended some of the world’s greatest festivals, Price kicks off each new year by searching online for must-see festivals. Then he checks the annual CRS class schedule. “I coordinate festival dates with class dates, so I leave town for slightly longer periods of time but less often. That gives me a work-life balance that meets all my needs — personal and business.”

QUALITY TRUMPS QUANTITY

Whether lucky, carefully coordinated or thoughtfully set in cement, those moments devoted to life rather than work are crucial to combat “time confetti” — a feeling of being blown about in many places at once. There is no magic number of hours required to find balance, and those hours can certainly include others if, for example, your passion is family, ballroom dancing or playing second base on a softball team. However, “me” time activities need to be focused and undisturbed — for as long as you can reasonably swing it.

Price offers one more piece of advice that may increase the joy spent away from your desk and clients. “At the end of the day, although we love our job, we’re doing this so we can afford to live the life we love. Remember that and you’ll enjoy life a lot more.”

Donna Shryer is a freelance writer based in Chicago.

For more, read Leading the Life You Want: Skills for Integrating Work and Life, by Stewart D. Friedman, available at Amazon.com.