The accountant’s survival trap: 10 ways to escape

June 1, 2021 10:39 AM

Chances are you’ve never heard the term “survival trap,” but I’d be willing to bet you have a pretty good idea of what it is. Accountants reading this today have likely spent the last 16 months inside of this trap due to the challenges and changes that the pandemic wreaked on our profession.

Some might call this period of time an extended busy season, but the problem is that busy season is not a season at all. A season would have a beginning and an end. Some would contend that the pandemic was a different beast, a once in a lifetime event. I would argue, however, that the very nature of life is an unpredictable series of one-off events. Anyone who has kept a journal simply needs to go back and read some historical passages to be reminded of this truth.

So when we arrive at one of these various challenging moments in life — and for us accountants, that may simply be busy season — we fall into the delusion that we’ll tackle certain projects after we get to the other side. The idea that we’d enjoy a period of ample time, energy and focus to deal with these projects in the midst of chaos is simply not rational. The uncomfortable reality is that humans are terrible at projecting the future accurately. Tax accountants will often find that after they get past the annual tax deadline — normally April 15, but it’s a moving target — they need a vacation, after which they have to get caught up on everything that got pushed off during tax season, before getting back into the extension season.

After October 15, we have to catch up on what was pushed aside, do tax planning for clients and take care of the affairs of the firm, all while preparing for and traveling during the holidays.

The myth that things will die down and we’ll be able to complete the projects that will make work and life easier moving forward is just that — a myth. Things never completely die down and, sorry, few of us have the energy and discipline to plant the seeds for the next harvest.

This myth explains the accountant’s survival trap, which I define as the spin cycle of extinguishing the hottest fire so that the house hasn’t burned down by the time you get to the next fire. If all you can do is stop your house from burning down, chances are that your house is a literal and metaphorical dumpster fire.

The only way to escape the survival trap is by working each day to get out of it. This takes concerted effort. It’s not something that can be delayed until tomorrow, next week, next month or next quarter. This is constant and continual work. Below, I have outlined 10 steps to get your life back. I recognize this is far from easy. It may mean you get less done in the short term, but I promise the long-term payoff will dwarf the short-term pain.

Define your work schedule

You must have boundaries. This includes the time that you’ll block off on your calendar for the work that needs extended periods of focus, when you’ll check emails, when you’ll schedule meetings and when you’ll stop working. The idea is to batch similar task types together to prevent fatigue from context switching.

And this one is important: You must be able to identify when your brain is slowing down. If it’s taking you 15 minutes to get something done you can normally do in 10 minutes, you need to stop working for the day. Sure, you could get more done today by working longer, but you’re borrowing from the next day, week and month the more you do this. Ideally, work to figure out what hours this brain fog creeps in, and strictly schedule yourself to finish work within your high-energy hours.

Fire bad clients

If a client is loading you down with unreasonable expectations or just treating you poorly, they either need to pay more or they need to be shown the door. New clients are not an endangered species; there are plenty of them out there. If you work somewhere that won’t allow you to transition off this particular client, move to a more enlightened firm.

Eliminate scope creep

If you’re doing good work for a client, often they’ll ask you to do more. And as we all know, these tasks are almost always out of scope of the original engagement letter. Instead of doing it as a courtesy just because it seems like a small one-off, let clients know it’s out of scope — even if you’re willing to do it for free — so that when enough of these tasks pile up, you’ve set the groundwork for the conversation to increase their fee.

Create space to think creatively and strategically

In order to know what is going to make your life easier (see “eliminate scope creep,” above), you’ve got to schedule uninterrupted and unstructured time to think about what’s slowing you down and how you might solve for that. You just may think of your next big idea that pushes your practice forward exponentially.

Don’t pinch pennies — invest in yourself

If you run your own practice, avoid the tendency to be penny wise, pound foolish. If you view every dollar going out the door as one less dollar you have in your pocket, you’re going to take on too much of the work yourself and create an artificial ceiling. How much time can this staff accountant or software take off my plate? What could I do with this time to move the business forward? These are the questions that will get you thinking bigger.

Do something for someone else

After you’ve taken the necessary steps to protect your own well-being, you’ll have a lot more to give to others. The point is to take advantage of that and give in ways that are meaningful to you. You’ll get more than you give. Trust me.

As a profession and a community, we need to start creating practices that put sustainability at the forefront. I’m not talking about Mother Earth here but rather a sustainable way for our people to practice that doesn’t push our best and brightest out of public accounting. This will only happen if we start designing our practices with intentionality. This 10-Step Plan is a great starting point for you — and your staff, if you have one — to get back on the road to sanity.