Moving Up by Powering Down

The PEW Research Center recently did a study and found that an alarming 67% of cell phone owners check their phone (or phones, plural) for messages, alerts, or calls- even when they don’t notice their phone ringing of vibrating.

I AM this 67%. I have not one, but two phones. I AM an addict.
A usual day in the life of an addict (me) looks something like this

When I’m not waiting for someone to “like” my post, I’m refreshing my e-mail to make sure I haven’t missed an update so important that the sender didn’t bother to call me (ha). I often find my eyes crossing as I lay in bed at night swiping through 67 pages of shoes, normally just black shoes. All the same in color and style. 67 pages of shoes.

Being a Realtor comes with a lot of flexibility, it also comes with the assumption that you are available 24/7. For the past 10 years I have made myself available 24/7. I have unintentionally fed the beast by answering e-mails at 10:30 pm. Maybe it’s the Type A in me that feels this weird urgency to answer any/all e-mails within 5 minutes of receipt.

During a recent session with my life coach I complained about feeling disconnected from my husband and kids. After hours of introspection the common denominator was obvious- my phone. My phone had become my secret lover, and my unread e-mail count had become the scale by which I weighed my productivity. My life coach suggested powering down between the hours of 5pm and 9pm (when the kids go to bed and my husband inevitably turns on a movie starring Sylvester or Keanu). Could this possibly be doable? Would I lose clients? Would a house burn down before sunrise the next morning? The obvious answer to both is “No, probably not”. So did I do it? Did I implement the “power down”? Nope. I’m actually writing this blog post in hopes that it will hold me somewhat accountable.

Tonight I will power down. I will put my family first. I will ask my husband how his day was while I drink wine and pretend to listen. I will still shop- but it will be via catalog, not my cell phone. Wait, can you still place an order over the phone? Are they open at 9pm? This is already sounding way more difficult than I had planned.

Wish me luck- and don’t call me after 5pm 😉

Peace, Love, Properties
“Create Luck”
www.CreateLuckLV.com