CAI-NJ Mar.2020 (w) (1)

A Day in the Life of a PROPERTY MANAGER By Holly Foley, CMCA RMG, Regency Management Group, Inc., AAMC

M anagers must start each day with a plan. Often times, that plan doesn’t go as expected or as hoped in the world of community management. anagers face a new set of tasks each day, on top of their usual daily work duties and “yesterday’s” tasks that are still incomplete. Managers constantly adjust their plan for the day according to things that pop up, whether it’s an emer- gency, a homeowner dispute, or anything that the board may request. These, as well as many other scenarios, happen every day. Managers have to be able to work effi- ciently through interruptions throughout the day. Answering homeowner inquiries by phone and email (oh – all of the emails!), issuing work tickets in the midst of typing up min- utes, or having to stop everything to look up information in the governing documents is necessary. Every single day is busy and unpredictable but learning something new, even with three or more years’ experience, is actually fun! Prioritizing tasks and redoing to do lists plays a huge part in management. Unfortunately, in the minds of clients,

everything is a priority! Every request is a priority to the person who is asking – and residents and board members aren’t thinking about the manager’s other responsibilities. They can’t, because they do not understand the full scope of a manager’s job! Feeling stressed out, spread thin, and overwhelmed by a large workload is not a good feeling. One way to combat that is to be positive. Anxiety is a common feeling a lot of managers speak of when talking about their jobs, and there are many different ways to push through those feelings. Making a daily to do list (on top of all the other to do lists!) helps with this. Making a list of items that need to be taken care of right away and leaving the list next to the phone, mouse, or keyboard helps man- agers stay on track. Keeping this list front and center all day constantly helps to hold oneself accountable. An “Open Items Spreadsheet” or “Action List” for each community is a major tool. As hard as it is to tie things up at the end of the day (or evening!), it’s important to update these lists daily. It’s also important to update these lists while things are fresh CONT I NU E S ON PAGE 18

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