By Julie Adamen


For this article in the October 2008 HOA Manager NewsLine complete with all the news click here.

In the past two weeks I have been working on a new presentation and seminar on Stress Management. As I am wont to do, I asked my dear friend Rolf Crocker ("The Book Report") to take a look at it for content, spelling, etc. In doing so, he recommend that I read "Tyranny of the Urgent'", by Charles E. Hummel [1].   In a nutshell, it's a treatise on time management from a religious standpoint. As Rolf says, "To do what Jesus did in 3 years, you had to be able to plan and manage time extraordinarily well." By anyone's estimation, this is an understatement.

Hummel's essay got me thinking about how to approach, with clarity, the subject of stress management for community managers beyond the obvious recommendations of "exercise" and "get enough sleep," although those edicts are very important.  I asked myself, what is the key element that stresses us out? It's the lack of time to complete those tasks we think we must.  Time is our most valuable commodity because once it's gone - it's gone. You can't go to the store and buy a six-pack of time. So, realizing that your work day is finite - say, 9 hours - you must manage your time well to complete what tasks you must (and I do mean "the must do's"), yet allow for the barrage of phone calls, emails, memos and other daily incoming communication while.  Managers: There is a way to mange it all and keep our stress level lower through understanding one basic tenet: Everything is 'urgent', but not everything is 'important'.

Think about it. Everyone wants something from you, and they want it right now. They email, they text, they call, they track you down. We are crushed by incoming communication that is never off which greatly extends (without warrant) our work day: Cell phones, Blackberrys, text messages, email.  This bombardment of continual communication creates a sense of urgency, thus giving all incoming communication a false sense of importance. And because it appears so important, many of us always, always immediately answer those incoming communications regardless of whether they are truly 'important', or merely 'urgent'. This poor habit sucks up valuable time within our workday and our work week, keeping us from more important tasks. Less time to complete tasks = real stress. Make no mistake:  Instant communication - unchecked - can be your biggest obstacle to successful time and stress management.

As Mr. Hummel says, "Your greatest danger is in letting the 'urgent' things crowd out the 'important'."  Taking a cue from that quote, we realize must take control of our reaction to 'urgent' issues by managing how they present themselves and how we initially - and subsequently - respond.

Step 1: Know the reasons why we buy in to 'urgency'

"The momentary appeal of these tasks seems irresistible and important, and they devour our energy."

• We want it off our plate. It's very tempting to answer that email or return that voicemail immediately, because we believe that the empty plate will lower our work-load. It does - but only short-term.
• We want the squeaky wheel quieted. Sometimes we just can't take another communiqué from that insistent (and computer literate) resident. We cry "Uncle!" then immediately answer that email, then get on the phone and immediately problem-solve. Now their 'emergency' is ours. 
• It makes us feel important (or covers for inadequacy).  We all know someone who runs around all day in a continual frazzle, on their cell, texting an owner, handling every detail themselves. Busy busy busy! "Look at me! I'm the indispensible manager! Aren't I important? I can handle everything immediately." 
• Satisfaction. Yes, there is real satisfaction in offering immediate solutions to residents or to others." 

Reacting to Urgency, v. Acting on Importance. Though it may be temporarily satisfying, reacting immediately to situations as they come before us, as if we were a bug on a string, will, over the long haul, make us feel as if we are out of control, as if we are at the whim of external forces. And we are.  This continual out of control feeling is terribly stress-inducing.

Acting on 'important' issues means we can work on an 'important' project all day long and not be stressed about it, inherently implying a certain control over our professional life and our emotional well-being. By implication, we know what demands our true attention, and what does not.

Step 2: Indentify what is 'important' or just 'urgent'

"We live in constant tension between the urgent and the important."

It starts with understanding the definitions:

'Urgent' - Compelling immediate action or attention; pressing.

'Important' - Strongly affecting the course of events or the nature of things; significant

It may seem like a fine line between those definitions but in reality there is a broad gap between the two. Think: Just because something compels immediate action doesn't mean it warrants immediate action. Here's how we begin to determine if it's 'important' or just 'urgent':

Ask yourself, what if I don't respond right now? Next time there is a phone call, email, text message or a live body in your office take a breath and a minute to evaluate that "incoming communication" and ask yourself: Does this (email, text, phone call, person or event) strongly affect the course of events for this community? Or does it simply call for my immediate attention because I bought in to the urgency with which it is presented to me? Separating out the 'urgent' from the important' is the first step in time and stress management.

Step 3: Prioritize your (urgent, important) incoming communication and time slot them for action.

Every day when you walk in to your office, you have "x" amount of things you know you must accomplish in a slotted amount of time.  You have a Board pack to put together. You have to work on two budgets. You have a meeting with a Board President. These are 'important' tasks. You only have so many hours in the day aside from those set tasks to accomplish whatever else comes your way, so you must manage your incoming communication well while still letting your residents and others know that you received their message.  Here are some thoughts:

The dreaded telephone. You get to your office on any given day and there are 20 or so voicemails waiting for you. Ugh, you think, "There goes my plan for finishing those budgets! And there goes my blood pressure!"  STOP. Your plans need not be scrapped because of those 20 calls, of which likely -0- are truly important. Pick up the voicemail and triage those calls by placing them in "time slots" of importance, from important to not so important.  For example, a call from the Board president of your largest account is important and would rate a #1 slot (and should be returned by you that morning). A call regarding info you need to complete the budget you are working on would rate a # 2 slot.  Calls from residents with whom you know you have to speak, but not right now, may
rate a #3. Calls for normal, non-critical common area problems would rate a #4 and can likely be delegated to a vendor by e-mail later in the day. Sales calls for a product you don't need may rate a #5 - no response necessary at this time.

In about 15 minutes you can triage messages, slot them where they belong in importance, do what you must with regard to the one (maybe two) that warrant your immediate attention - and move on to the important items you must accomplish.  And keep this up throughout the day - if you aren't picking up your phone directly when it rings (which I would recommend unless you have some free time on your hands) you may want to check your voicemail every hour, and then continually triage those new messages just as you did your morning calls.

The "E" in email does not stand for "Emergency!"  What is noted above in handling voicemail also applies to email and text messaging. When reviewing your email, place it in time slots of importance: For example, #1 slot for any issue to which you personally must respond now, # 2, # 3, and so on down the line.

Email is a very efficient method of work communication and can save a tremendous amount of time… Unless we are email junkies and spend time emailing friends, sending jokes, reading up on politics and the like. Letting go the fact that you are really taking away from your employer the time which you are paid to be working - you are hurting yourself as well. The working hours spent in composing personal emails and surfing the net take up tremendous amounts of time on virtually worthless pursuits that do nothing to assist you in time or stress management. It may be momentarily entertaining, but will only cause you to lose precious time that cannot be regained. The same goes for text-messaging.

Step 4:  Concurrently acknowledge all incoming communication

Voicemail and auto-response: Underutilized tools. When a resident contacts you, they want to know that you received the message - they simply want that touch back. Utilize voicemail and auto-response and tailor it to your needs (daily) to manage and acknowledge those incoming communications.  Here's an auto-response example: "Hi, this is Julie. It's Wednesday, October 15th and your email has been received. I'll be reviewing all email at approximately 1pm this afternoon. If you need assistance prior to that time, please call our customer service dept. at 555-1212." The same sort of thing goes for voicemail on your office or cell phone. Change this daily or more often to fit your needs throughout the day.

Step 5: Limit your personal availability

Especially if you are on site, you know that one of the most 'urgent' things with which you deal are warm bodies in your office, who have some perceived emergency, or who just need to come in and alleviate boredom by sucking up your time and keeping you from accomplishing an 'important' task. Yes, its part of the job but you can help yourself by keeping published (newsletter, website, sign on your door) hours of availability, and sticking to it wherever and whenever you are able. Unless it is mandated by your Board, keeping yourself open to continual office visits by errant residents is largely self-induced time-waster and stress-inducer (where did the day go?).

Step 6: Delegate

You are not the know-all and end-all. Years ago I wrote an article titled "10 Things I Know Now I Wish I had Known Then." One of those 10 Things was to to delegate, and train my replacement. I find that many folks have a hard time delegating even the simplest of tasks, usually because the task may end up completed, but it's not the way they would have done it. Uh huh. Bottom Line: You can't do it all, not matter how hard you try and you must allow others to carry out tasks on your behalf. Will all those tasks all come out just perfect? No, they will not, but enough of them will to make it work in the long run. (And just because it's not exactly how you would have done it, if the end result is the same - it's unimportant). Get over yourself.

Step 7:  Turn off what you can, when you can.

Your cell phone/Blackberry/PC has an off switch. Use it liberally.  Your cell phone does not have to be on when you are sitting at your desk unless you are expecting an important call. It doesn't have to be on when you are in a meeting. It doesn't need to be utilized immediately when you hop in to your car. Unless you are on call, or it's your only phone, you can turn it off when you go home at night.  Using the "off" button keeps you from being distracted by the 'urgent' and lets you focus on the 'important,' such as dinner with your family. Don't worry - any caller will get your voicemail or auto-response indicating when you will be picking up messages.

Step 8: Know the Unintended Consequences

Acting on urgency can create very unrealistic expectations. There is a serious unseen downside to continually acting on urgency and being personally available to all incoming communication.  Once you have set the "availability bar" higher than is continually achievable (and likely out of contract) it's very hard to come back to the world of mere mortals. From that point on,  every time you are unavailable to answer an email or phone call immediately - and it will happen - you will be tagged as "unresponsive."

The Tyranny of the 'Urgent'

It takes serious effort on your part not to be tyrannized by the urgent.  Not falling in to the common community management trap of reacting to urgency as if everything is crucial and 'important' takes very serious discipline on your part. Initially that discipline itself may feel stressful as you break your addiction to reacting to urgency.  In the long run, as this discipline becomes part and parcel of your work habit, you will find yourself managing your time and your stress to your greatest advantage.  Less urgency = less stress = better time management = better community management.

Last Words

Even as little as 5 years ago, when we managers left the office we would be reasonably assured that we wouldn't be (too) bothered by work-related communication on our drive home, at home, or at our son's soccer match. Those days are over you say? Only if you let them. If we stand back a moment, and take a breath, we begin to realize that much of this communication could actually be dealt according to its true level of importance. John Maxwell said, "Before you put off until tomorrow what you could do today, study it clearly.  Maybe you can postpone it indefinitely."  In our business there is little we can postpone indefinitely, but it does point out that, well, maybe we can give ourselves the small luxury of not responding instantaneously to the 'urgent' when it takes us away from the truly 'important.'

[1] http://www.amazon.com/Tyranny-Urgent-Charles-E-Hummel/dp/087784092X/ref=pd_sim_b_1/105-3061424-9759611  Please note that all quotes within this article, unless otherwise indicated, are from this publication.