Save content
Have you found this content useful? Use the button above to save it to your profile.
iStock00017127567_Small

The seven deadly sins of time management

by
9th Oct 2015
Save content
Have you found this content useful? Use the button above to save it to your profile.

Accountants are great at balancing the books, but sometimes they’re not as effective in balancing their time.

Our US counterpart site AccountingWEB.com recently offered advice for accountants tempted to bite on the apple of procrastination by compiling a list of the seven deadly sins of time management.

While time management is less of a sin than the disgraced accountants who have succumbed to the Biblical deadly sins in tax fraud, your practice will suffer by not changing your routine.

By following the teachings of Bryce Sanders, you should no longer fall for procrastination temptation and become a time management saint.

Sloth: Thou shalt not be distracted

“We have projects we enjoy doing along with those we dread,” Bryce Sanders says in his article. If you schedule a time for a project you dislike, the sloth sin takes hold, and invariably you find every reason to procrastinate.

To repent your sins, you should remove all distractions, or remove yourself. Sanders preaches: “In all cases, shut the door so you aren’t interrupted”.

Pride: Thou shalt not resist to delegate

People who are good with numbers aren’t the best communicators. Rather than delegate, Sanders says that pride takes over, and accountants believe that only they are the ones who can do the job.

To shackle this sin Sanders suggests you could write up everything you do. Review the list and determine whether this task can only be completed by you.

Envy: Thou shalt not waste time looking at competition

It is useful looking at what your competition are doing. However, spending all day trawling social media outlets envious at others’ success could leave you feeling depleted by the lack of your own success.

You can find atonement for your jealousy by scheduling a media black-out. Focus on your own workload rather than desire anything that belongs to your accounting neighbours. Instead of nosing what your competition are doing, embrace social media, like accounting firm Kinder Pocock, as way of marketing your practice.

Wrath: Thou shalt not be angered by lost time

If your client is late for a meeting, how often do you spend the time waiting in a rage by their tardiness, rather than spending that time doing something productive?

In times when a client is late, have a list of projects you can do while you wait, like clearing out your emails. This would be a far more useful use of your time than seething.  

Lust: Thou shalt not be attracted by interruptions

Throughout your day you are often interrupted from your work with paperwork that needs fulfilling immediately. You find this paperwork irresistible; it seduces you away from your workload.

The client’s question may need to be answered immediately, but if you were on holiday, would you curtail your break to the query? The paperwork can wait. Finish your important work first, and then deal with the interruption.  

Greed: Thou shalt not hold onto paperwork

You could waste your day filing away or retrieving your paperwork. Although paperwork may be needed for compliance reasons, you can switch to a cloud-based solution to throw away your material possessions.

Gluttony: Thou shalt not lack prioritisation

You will start off your day with what needs to be done, but when you have an excessive desire to indulge in every item, you find that nothing gets done.

Not every item of your workload is equally as important. Sanders recommends starting your day with a written plan assigning priorities: “Clear the highest-priority projects, and the uncleared projects roll to the next day’s list. Eventually, the middle-tier projects are promoted to the top tier.”

Can you think of any other time management sins you need to avoid to boost your productivity? 

Replies (4)

Please login or register to join the discussion.

avatar
By Aprid
09th Oct 2015 11:35

[***]

Thou shalt not follow click bait.....doh!

Thanks (1)
paddle steamer
By DJKL
09th Oct 2015 11:51

Oh, the irony. I ought to be starting the drafting of a number of sets of accounts, instead I got distracted and read the article on procrastination.

Thanks (4)
By ireallyshouldknowthisbut
09th Oct 2015 15:42

.

@DJKL, me you and pretty much everyone else reading it is in the same position.

Trouble is I already have "the usual suspects" locked down on the server to keep me off them before 6pm, and this is about the only site i have left apart from The Daily Mash. 

Might have to do some work...

 

Thanks (1)
avatar
By johnjenkins
12th Oct 2015 10:06

Thou shalt

not have fridays off to cycle around the canals of the UK.

Thou shalt not have lunch with the wife.

Thou shalt not read and comment on  Mark Lee's articles.

Thou shalt read and absorb Bob's comments.

Thanks (0)