As technology brings us all closer together and provides us the opportunity to email, text, phone, follow up, respond, request at a nano-second’s notice, I’ve found that as a luxury real estate broker in Manhattan the urge to respond immediately to every email and inquiry is huge and it definitely pays off to do so in many cases, however, there are also costs to doing so all the time. Part of my increased productivity recently has been to start my day in a more proactive and focused manner vs. looking at my cell phone first thing and rushing to answer emails. It’s extremely hard not to, given how client-focused I am but it’s working.

Talking to friends, colleagues, clients, and other business leaders it appears that regardless of our professions, the sheer increase in the volume of information coming at us in both our business and personal lives through all these social media and digital channels is becoming extremely distracting. We are trying to adapt but most people are just running faster to try to keep up. Sleep is interrupted by our smart phones and many are starting their days with this list: Emails, check, Kids lunch, Check, Project A – half-check..wait that email just came in…chec…wait who texted me, is it urgent…check…wait where was I?