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A Little Distance Can Help You Solve Big Property Management Problems

Posted on 12. Oct, 2010 by Heather Blume in Business

Sometimes, all it takes is a little distance.

For the last month, I’ve been in a pretty deep problem. I followed my usual method of just sitting down and the keyboard and trying to let things simply “flow” but it seemed like someone or something had plopped the Hoover Dam right down across my creativity river. For a content creator, such as myself, that’s a pretty serious problem. So, I really decided to focus in on it, or as the current business jargon would put it, “Drill Down!” I’ve read at least 6 books in the last 4 weeks about writer’s block and frequented sites with exercises to relieve the ailment every single day. Getting rid of this block pretty much consumed my mind for the last month.

The other day, it hit me. After a few days of realizing I was really depressed about this lack of creation, I finally had an epiphany. Of course I couldn’t create anything – I was so focused on the fact that I couldn’t do it, I was consumed.

I know you’ve been there.

Maybe it was with budgets this season? Or a particularly challenging problem employee? Maybe it’s professional life intruding on personal or vice versa? Maybe you’re fighting burnout?

When you’re doing a daily drown in the negativity river, you’re going to be walking around with a lot of residue on you – a residue that you can’t ever totally wipe away. It starts to infect everything and everyone you come into contact with. That resident who used to be “eccentric” and “quirky” is now the most annoying person on the planet and you want to taze them every time they dare to darken your doorstep. Or the cute competitive leasing agents you used to enjoy managing now seem to always be bickering about petty things that don’t matter.

It’s about your perspective. It’s time to step back and disconnect from the problem that is consuming you. Shift your focus. I promise, that problem isn’t going anywhere if you take a few hours to look at something else, but you might be heading to insanity-ville if you don’t give yourself a break.

Try this: Stand up. Walk away from your desk. Go visit your property management team and ask them about the problems they’re having. Spend about an hour mentoring them and helping them. When humans do something altruistic, it has a revitalizing effect on the human psyche, allowing you to go back and look at your problem from an additional distance. It’s been proven time and time again that fresh eyes on a problem often see overlooked solutions or creative fixes. If you’ve been neck deep in it for more than three days, your eyes aren’t fresh anymore. It’s time to take a break.

You’d be surprised how useful a non singular focus can really be when you’re wallowing in a single worry. Who knows – you might just produce something awesome on the other side of your troubles.

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Tags: business