Having a healthy work-life balance is important for everyone. It ensures one has enough physical and mental rest to help manage stress and reduce the chances of experiencing burnout. It also allows individuals to attend to both work responsibilities and important life events.

That being said, some people with high-pressure jobs may find a healthy work-life balance more challenging to achieve. For example, real estate professionals have demanding careers and often work on weekends to assist home buyers and sellers. On weekdays, they need to be ready for property showings at any time. On top of these responsibilities, some real estate professionals perform other duties, like recruiting top talent into their brokerage company. As such, their busy lives can get even busier. Fortunately, when recruiters hire agents, they can use innovative tools to automate some of their tasks. They can also develop a personal system to create a healthy balance between life and career.

If you’re having challenges balancing your personal and professional lives, here are some work-life balance lessons from real estate agencies you can consider applying:

Prepare a To-Do List

Real estate agents have many different tasks to do daily, like updating property listings, advertising properties, and filling out important documents. They also need to respond to emails and calls from clients and other prospects. As such, it can get so busy that they might miss certain details. To help keep track of their tasks, they usually create a to-do list.

Applying the same practice can help you keep track of everything you need to do and tick them off as soon as you accomplish them. Having a to-do list can also help you monitor high-priority tasks and schedule them as needed. This helps you stay on top of your tasks and avoid becoming swamped. 

When preparing your to-do list, consider doing it at the end of every workday. This way, you can be prepared for the next day and take your mind off work once you clock out. From here, you can organize the tasks you can quickly complete, such as filing documents and updating your calendar, and those that need more time, like cultivating leads.

Practice Time Management

The challenge real estate professionals often encounter is that their work hours can overlap with their personal time. Sometimes, they need to use their weekends to attend to their clients, which may interfere with their important events and appointments. If something like this typically happens to you, it’s easy to feel stressed, which increases the likelihood of getting burned out.

To avoid such a situation, consider using a calendar to block certain times of your day when you will work and when you will need to take care of personal commitments. Then, stick to your schedule as much as possible. When planning your day, avoid scheduling back-to-back meetings. Instead, have a bit of wiggle room to give you time to prepare for the next appointment. 

When it comes to your personal commitments, schedule them as immovable appointments. This practice ensures you get as much personal time as you dedicate to your work.

Take Breaks

Regardless of how busy your day gets, make sure to take breaks. Otherwise, you become more prone to feeling stressed. Take time in your day to have a break, even if it’s just 10 minutes. Every month, consider taking time off from work too. And if possible, take a vacation once a year. Whenever you take these breaks, whether short or long, resist the urge to check up on work to fully take advantage of your rest time.

Set Boundaries

When it comes to your work hours, it’s important to set boundaries. While the work of a real estate agent seems to never end, it’s quite impossible to give all your attention to your clients 24 hours a day. Also, working around the clock can be very tiring and stressful, and it can affect your work productivity.

Taking all of these into account, make sure to communicate your work hours clearly. For your partners and clients, you may want to give out your personal contact number. This way, you can filter when you need to respond to general inquiries and actual client concerns. At the same time, you won’t miss out on important transactions and can create a clear separation between work and personal time.

Consider Getting Support

Many great real estate professionals are also very hardworking. At times, they try to do everything on their own and don’t realize they’re stretching themselves too thin. As a result, they get exhausted to the point of burnout.

If this is something you’re prone to do, consider getting someone to assist you. For example, an administrative assistant can help you with daily tasks like updating property listings, managing your contact database, creating reports, and more. Getting these tasks off your daily load allows you to focus on other important aspects of your real estate business, like providing exceptional service to your clients.

Building a career can be tough for anyone, especially in a demanding industry. But it doesn’t mean you can’t have a good balance between your work and personal life. Just take a look at these lessons real estate agencies have learned. Consider applying them to your own career and making adjustments along the way to suit your personal work style. Hopefully, you can achieve a healthy work-life balance and avoid getting burned out.