Bookmarks: 5 Interesting Articles That May Help You This Week

Each week, I select a few articles that rise above the fray and hopefully help you on your journey in the CRE world. They pull from one of four "corners:" corporate real estate, technology, management science and anything positive. I welcome your comments on these articles.

1. Stop Feeling Guilty About Your To-Do List

It’s the end of the workday, and your to-do list has barely been touched. You feel guilty for not getting more done. But this emotion is neither useful, nor healthy.

So, what can you do about it? How should you handle feelings that you’re letting down your coworkers, boss, customers — and even yourself? How can you learn to accept that you are doing the best you can? And, what are some strategies for getting smarter about how you tackle your interminable to-do list?

Your end-of-workday shame for not having accomplished what you set out to is often the result of unrealistic expectations, says Heidi Grant, the director of research and development for Americas Learning at EY and the author of No One Understands You and What to Do About It, among others. “Most humans are overly optimistic—we enter the day with an expectation and plan of getting all sorts of things done,” she says. But the trouble is, “we are not grounding our expectations in the reality of the work that we do.” So invariably when 6 o’clock rolls around, we feel anxious and guilt-ridden says Whitney Johnson, the executive coach and author most recently of Disrupt Yourself. “You look at what you didn’t get done, and you get that sinking feeling deep in your soul that you are not enough.” But, she says, “you mustn’t feel like a failure.”

2. Investors See U.S. Real Estate As Safe Haven During Coronavirus Scare

As coronavirus outbreaks emerge in more places, investors seem to be turning to U.S. real estate as a good place to park their money.

So far, the uptick in interest has been strongest in single-family residential rental properties, with investors worldwide flocking to the sector.

Roofstock, a company that lists single-family rental houses for sale, says that it has seen traffic from Asia spike by 500% in recent weeks, CNBC reports. Other recent jumps in interest have been from Germany, the UK and Australia.

The key is that Roofstock can sell a rental property entirely online. While investors, especially from China, can't visit the United States for the moment to look at residential properties, they can complete deals remotely through sites like Roofstock.

3. Opportunity Zones Springboard Young Companies in 2nd Tier Cities

Before getting into Opportunity Zones, Patrick McKenna, managing partner at Catalyst Opportunity Funds, had the venture fund focused on investing in entrepreneurs outside of Silicon Valley—from Baltimore to Pittsburgh to Milwaukee.

“The idea here is that there’s talent everywhere,” he says. “It’s under-capitalized. So, I’ve personally been in those places working with entrepreneurs and working with local investors.”

That experience helped McKenna develop an eye for cities with great potential. “I have a track record of being able to validate that there’s underlying growth, there’s talent and there’s a bright future in these places, but they are also under-capitalized,” he says.

4. The Special Kind of Impostor Syndrome That Comes When You’re Not Broke Anymore

When you first get a job that pays more than you’re used to, the feeling that you shouldn’t blow through all of your money is not only strong, but it’s also wise. Financial experts warn against lifestyle inflation, which is when you spend more money because you earn more money. Maybe you buy a new car or move into a more expensive house, and suddenly your expenses relative to your income are just as high as they were when you made less money. This is how people who earn a higher salary can still feel as if they’re not that well off.

But there’s another, more visceral reason you might have financial impostor syndrome: If you’ve spent most of your career not earning much, then it’s more familiar to you than being financially stable. Making enough money doesn’t feel real yet, and you’re afraid it will all go away.

In some cases, this can be a good thing. Pouring your extra money into paying off debt or building up your savings are all good habits to have. But it can also prevent you from taking care of yourself, even now that you can afford to.

5. The Tech Habits of Co-Workers That Drive Us Crazy

Recognize any of these people? The colleague who doesn’t reply to emails in a timely fashion. The office-mate whose cellphone constantly chirps as texts pour in. The remote worker whose paper rustling disrupts every conference call.

When it comes to our colleagues and technology, we all have our individual pet peeves. But one thing everybody can probably agree on: Our frustrations with workplace technology often aren’t because the technology is intrinsically annoying. They’re because people are intrinsically annoying. And as technology expands into every available corner and crevice of the workplace, so does our co-workers’ ability to use that technology in ways that bug us.

While all these things may be mildly (or not so mildly) annoying on their own, they add up to something much bigger. For one thing, they make work a lot less pleasurable and a lot more stressful. But perhaps more significant, they make us less effective at our jobs. They create tension in the workplace and reduce collaboration. They interrupt our workflow and intrude on our attention. In fact, if workplace technology has largely failed to deliver on its promise of productivity gains, the gaps and conflicts in how we each use tech at work may be a major contributor to that disappointment.

Your success blesses others. I wish you a great a hugely impactful week!

Ken Ashley