Time Management for Property Managers

I am now an ex Residential Property Manager

I've had a lot of thoughts about property management but decided to keep my powder dry but maybe now is the time to let my thoughts out.

So occasionally I reflected on how could I better organise myself and my work.

As a Property Manager we have so many people trying to get our time

residents

owners

site staff

existing contractors

new contractors

directors

freeholders

all of the above multiplied by all the buildings we look after

on top of this there are

accounts staff

legal enquiries

other PM colleagues

and of course our bosses - why haven’t you answered every email and got all your budgets and accounts out on time!

The answer, the perfect system…

…sadly doesn’t exist but I wonder if any system exists?

If we think of all the wasted time in just one company because no one is thinking about the best way to organise and the systems needed and pretty much leaving it to each individual PM to sink or swim.

It reminds me of previous companies I have worked in and particularly banks where they come across as very professional and organised but every back office I ever work in was so chaotic and unproductive.

Generally people are not lazy but we are wasteful because we are doing our best.

Good management looks at the resources and the work and manages them with tools and systems - they need to understand, measure, manage and then improve.

Most management I have encountered starts at managing and pays lip service to the rest.

Thus the cycle of poor time management coninues...