I recently attended the Realtor.com Results Summit and had the good fortune to hear the keynote speaker, Julia Funt, the CEO of WhiteSpace at Work. She’s on a mission to help people declutter their minds and lives to become more balanced and effective at work. In fact, balanced people are 21% more effective than their counterparts who are stuck in mental loops and busy habitual behaviors. Whitespace is defined as a strategic pause taken between activities.

Funt clearly articulated the reasons why so many real estate agents are in a constant state of motion. She explained that our time is under attack and our very nature is the driver for this constant state of activity and chaos. If we better understand the four thieves of time, we will be able to guard against the theft and get off the hedonic treadmill of more, more, more.

The Four Thieves were identified as:

-Drive

-Excellence

-Information

-Activity

And although the above thieves can be positive traits for most successful people, their embodiment in an unbalanced life become negative traits that actually cause less productivity, burnout and disease.

These traits morph to become:

-Overdrive

-Perfectionism

-Information overload

-Activity overload

In order to counter the chaos, it's important to bring the “Whitespace” back into our lives by asking the following simplification questions:

Is there anything I can let go of?

Where is “good enough”, good enough?

What do I truly need to know?

What deserves my attention?

In addition to answering the simplification questions, easy ways to incorporate whitespace into your day include taking a brief walk without your phone, scheduling thinking time and creating space for others on your team to do the same. After all, inspiration often happens when we quiet our minds.

We each have a dominate thief in our lives that keeps us from living in our full potential. Start with the attribute that most resonates with you and begin the process of simplification and focus of your time. We all need to change our mindset about how to work and remember that thoughtfulness and reduction can be an amplifier to your business.  There is no time like the present to bring Whitespace into your life. Balance and focused time are the keys to all great work.