8 ways to stave off tech-induced burnout

Our brains have not had time to evolve to cope with the digitally demanding world in which we live — so how can we better equip ourselves against burnout?

Speaking at AREC earlier this week, Dr Kristy Goodwin acknowledged that while technology has revolutionised the way that real estate agents and property managers work, it’s also brought with it more than a few “always on” expectations.

From her perspective, technology is here to stay — so she stopped short of advising people to take digital detoxes. Instead, her focus was on “how we can use it in ways that will help us rather than harm us, [and] how we can use it in ways that will serve us rather than enslave us”.

The author, speaker, and consultant advised that “the harsh reality is, as humans, we can’t outperform our neurobiology”.

“The reality is that we have ancient paleolithic brains. We have brains that are biologically designed to go and forage and hunt,” she outlined.

“We used to go and get information: Who remembers when you used to go to the library and borrow a book or get an encyclopedia? Who remembers ringing someone’s secretary to organise a meeting and then flicking through the paper diary to find that meeting?”

By contrast, real estate professionals in 2023 “are being forced to consume vast amounts of information. And our brain has not evolved to cope with this digitally demanding world”.

Dr Goodwin elaborated on the idea that all of us “have a biological blueprint”.

“We have some basic constraints as humans and the ways in which we are using digital technologies, both professionally and personally, are completely incongruent, out of alignment with our human operating system (HOS).”

“We have adopted digital technologies, both professionally and personally, in ways that are incongruent with how our brains are designed, our human operating system. What’s basically happened is we have become ‘ousted’.”

The consultant concedes that many Australians are now living “in a perpetual state of overwhelm” — due to the fact that humans are now consuming “an average of 74 gigabytes worth of data every single day”.

Stressing that amount of data is more than our ancestors consumed in an entire lifetime, Dr Goodwin also raised that our brain’s memory centre – the hippocampus – has not gotten any larger to accommodate “the constant onslaught of information”.

“As a result, many of us are suffering from digital dementia,” she also raised — and it’s got nothing to do with age, sex or life stage.

“It is the fact that our brain cannot cope with the sheer volume of information.”

With tech most certainly here to stay, Dr Goodwin does believe it is possible for real estate professionals to take back their power — to “start to use technology in ways that is congruent with your human operating system, your brain and body”.

“You can power up your performance so that you can thrive in the digital world without needing to revert to a digital detox, without aiming to get to ‘inbox zero’ every day — they are both outdated and redundant strategies.”

Instead, Dr Goodwin advises cherry-picking strategies from a range of micro-habits that best suit not only your role — but your life.

So what are some of those strategies?

• Create digital guardrails

“With your clients, with your landlords, with your tenants, communicate your tech expectations.”

While it’s easy to create tech expectations, it also needs to be communicable.

“What are your tech preferences? Would you rather them text you or email? Is email a better way for you to triage or to offload or to outsource tasks? Communicate those to other people.”

• Get a good night’s sleep

According to Dr Goodwin, “the one lever that will improve your productivity, your physical health, and your mental wellbeing is getting good quality sleep”.

“Your tech habits, both at night and during the day, are sabotaging your sleep.”

Outlining that spending time on a screen in the 60 minutes before you go to sleep will stop your body from producing melatonin, the sleep hormone, Dr Goodwin said blue light from devices will then delay your body’s ability to sleep.

“As a word of warning, your phone is the biggest culprit of blue light. Why? The smaller the screen, the more blue light it emits to illuminate it.”

• Keep your phone out of the bedroom

Knowing that most real estate professionals will ignore this one, Dr Goodwin had two pieces of alternate advice.

“Put your phone somewhere where you cannot see it. Put it in a drawer, put a book over the top, put a magazine [on top].

“Because when you wake up naturally to go to the bathroom or get a glass of water, just seeing it can be a psychological trigger for you, you think I need to deal with that trigger situation,” she explained.

Secondly, she urged those present to “please make sure you are not getting alerts and notifications”.

Flagging that one in five Australian adults are woken each night because of alerts and notifications, she stated that this also will impact sleep quality.

• Start your day with sunshine

“If you want to optimise your sleep, the most scientifically easy thing to do is to get sunlight in the first hour of waking up,” Dr Goodwin shared.

Just 10 minutes on a sunny day and 20 minutes on an overcast day will do the trick.

According to Dr Goodwin, “if you do this, your body will magically make melatonin 16 hours later”.

• Block blue light

For those that do have to deal with work late at night, on either their laptop or phone, Dr Goodwin recommends investing in a pair of blue-light blocking glasses.

Certain apps will also sync with your laptop or phone’s clock and automatically adjust the blue light on your screen.

• Take 10 minutes of non-sleep deep rest

This new kind of power nap is “10 minutes where you lay down, you close your eyes”.

Explaining that it’s not hypnosis or meditation, Dr Goodwin said it does provide a surge in dopamine that can help people power through the day.

• Stop distractions

If you are doing work that requires deep concentration, limit or stop distractions entirely.

Disable all non-essential notifications on your phone, hide it if you have to.

“When you want to get your deep focused work done, put your phone somewhere where you cannot see it,” Dr Goodwin advised.

“The University of Austin, Texas study told us that even if our phone was on silent and face down, if it’s in our line of sight while we’re trying to do focused work, it drops our IQ by around 10 per cent.

“Put bluntly, seeing your phone makes you about 10 per cent dumber,” she raised.

• Claim back 30 to 40 seconds

Digital eye strain is another big issue for real estate professionals, but Dr Goodwin acknowledges time is sometimes scarce.

Therefore, she is an advocate for “simple things like looking out in the distance, closing your eyes”.

“On a Zoom call or in a virtual meeting, pretend that the internet has frozen or dropped out and just close your eyes for 30 seconds,” she instructed.

If you want to take it to the next level, spend 40 seconds in nature — that’s enough time to drop your cortisol levels.

While people may attempt to introduce an array of strategies into their daily lives, Dr Goodwin reminded that there’s no need “to eat the whole watermelon”.

“Please just take small bites. Don’t aim to overhaul everything.

“Make three to five small changes and bake those in,” she offered.

This article was originally published on HR Leader's sister brand Real Estate Business (REB).