EXECUTIVE
SUMMARY | FEW CPAs WOULD DENY
THAT MISSION STATEMENTS,
strategic plans and goal setting
are crucial to help drive a business to
success. However, very few CPAs take the
time to apply these concepts to their
personal lives.
CPAs WISHING TO
ACHIEVE BETTER WORK/LIFE BALANCE
should start by creating a
mission statement that helps them set a
direction for their lives and outlines
what accomplishments are really
important to them.
TIME MANAGEMENT IS
CRUCIAL TO BALANCING work and
personal lives. CPAs need to maximize
the amount of time spent on working
toward their goals and minimize the time
spent on less important things in life.
IT’S IMPORTANT TO
SPEND TIME PLANNING and
setting priorities. To do this, CPAs
need to distinguish between the
important and the immediate. When
setting priorities, it’s important to
discuss them with family and coworkers
to get their help and support.
CPAs ARE MASTERS AT
USING TO-DO LISTS but must
remember to put the items in order of
priority. A helpful trick for
accountants is to identify their prime
working time and schedule their most
difficult tasks for then. Also,
practitioners should avoid
“yes-buts”—rationalizing why it’s not a
good time to do a particular task.
OTHER TIPS INCLUDE
DELEGATING TASKS whenever
possible, clarifying and verifying all
communication, and not always expecting
perfection. In addition, CPAs should
strive to use their off-season downtime
as effectively as possible, make the
best of free time and make use of myriad
workplace trends that support work/life
balance. | SUSAN W. MILLER, MA, is a
career counselor in private practice at
California Career Services in Los Angeles.
Her e-mail address is swmcareer@aol.com
She is the career counselor of the
Los Angeles Times Web site, latimes.com
. THOMAS A. DOUCET, PhD, CISA, is a
professor of accounting at California
State University at Bakersfield.
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or busy CPAs, balancing personal and
professional lives can seem an impossible task.
Many of us often assume we have to sacrifice one
to succeed at the other. Others try so hard to
succeed in both areas that they end up feeling
harried and out of control—as if they’ve failed in
both worlds. Few CPAs would deny that
mission statements, goal setting and strategic
plans all help drive a business to success. But
very few of us ever take the time to apply these
same concepts to pushing our personal lives
forward. But using these concepts in our private
lives along with a mix of time-management
strategies—so tried and true in the office—can
help put us on the road to achieving more balance.
WHAT’S YOUR PASSION?
Most firms have mission statements
that spell out who they are (their reasons
for being), where they’re going and what
they must do to succeed. Why shouldn’t
you? As individuals, we need to think
about our own mission or passion, where we
are going and what we must do to get
there. Start with a statement that broadly
says what you would like to
accomplish—what’s most important to you
personally and professionally. While some
people may shrug off mission statements as
being corny or pie-in-the-sky, having one
can help you set the direction for your
life and keep you focused. Take the time
to formulate one. Think about what really
matters to you. What do you want to
attain? More and more people are looking
for meaning and spirituality in their work
and at home. Knowing what your personal
mission is can help provide that meaning.
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What
Matters Most
A survey of public
accountants found that twice as
many respondents, regardless of
their sex, were concerned about
work/life balance issues than
were concerned about upward
mobility. Source: 2000
Women & Family Issues
Survey of Professionals,
Work/Life and Women’s
Initiatives Executive
Committee, AICPA, 2000.
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Your mission statement as a CPA might include
being a catalyst for positive change in helping to
put the financial house in order for the people
and the organizations you work with. Or being
actively involved in your children’s lives. Write
your mission statement down and stick it in a
place where you will see it often enough to remind
you of what’s important—a bulletin board in your
office, the refrigerator at home or on a bookmark
to tuck in the book you read on the train. It need
not be too grand or too specific. Once
you’ve written your personal mission statement,
you need to set short- and long-term goals—the
steps along the path toward fulfilling your
mission. This goal-setting process is more detail
oriented and helps to focus your attention on
where you need to spend your time and efforts. For
example, if your mission is to play a more active
role in your children’s lives, you might try to
make sure you’re home for dinner with your family
so many times a week. When setting your goals,
don’t be afraid to reach, but remember to be
realistic. You may find it helps to list the
obstacles that stand in your way and then
brainstorm strategies to overcome them. One of the
biggest differences between people who succeed and
those who don’t is that successful people go
around and beyond roadblocks, while the others let
obstacles stop them. After you establish
your goals, plan the steps you must take to
achieve them. While this entire process requires
extensive soul-searching, the real challenge in
realizing your goals is the redeployment of your
resources—namely time—so you can achieve them.
Professional and personal demands on your time
always seem to exceed the amount of time
available. But to reduce stress and improve your
life, there’s a simple rule: Maximize the amount
of time you spend working toward your goals—and
minimize the time you spend on less important
things.
TIME MANAGEMENT IS KEY
The following are 10 strategies you can use
that will help move you toward achieving your
goals:
1.
Spend time planning and setting
priorities. Determine your
priorities both at home and at work. To do this,
you must distinguish between the important and the
immediate. Important is being on time to pick up
your child after soccer practice. Immediate is
dealing with a telephone interruption that will
make you late. If you set priorities based on what
is immediate, you probably do a lot of “fire
fighting.” But putting out flames is inefficient,
stressful and prevents you from focusing on what’s
important. Examine the types of fires you spend
the most time fighting. For example, do you find
yourself putting off client follow-up so much that
it soon becomes a client crisis? If you see a
pattern, come up with a system and set of
procedures to deal with it. When setting
priorities at work, discuss them with your boss to
make sure you are on track and that they match
what your boss has planned for you. When setting
priorities for your home life, be sure to discuss
them with family and coworkers to determine what
is important and what will work. It’s also a good
way to get their help and support from the start.
Once you have established your priorities,
make sure they don’t conflict with one another.
For example, have you promised your son or
daughter that you will attend all his or her
basketball games, many of which will likely be
during the busy season? You will need to discuss
any problems that pop up with family and coworkers
to help resolve these conflicts.
2.
Use to-do lists. Most
accountants are masters at using to-do lists. So
the issue is not necessarily having one, but
setting priorities on it. We tend to first choose
those to-do-list items that we can knock off
easily—important or not. Sometimes, we do this to
avoid a more difficult task or to make ourselves
feel that we’ve actually accomplished
something—which can help reduce stress. But
avoiding the difficult tasks will only increase
stress in the long run. Set priorities on your
to-do list and follow through.
3.
Identify your prime time.
Many of us tend to classify
ourselves as either morning or evening people
based on when we’re most efficient. Identify what
time of day you are most productive and schedule
tasks accordingly. Always plan your most difficult
work for the right time of day. Try to harness
your physical and creative energy when it’s at its
peak.
4.
Conquer your “yes-buts.”
Many people attempt to rationalize
avoiding a particular task with, “Yes, I should
work on that project now, but … .” Most
of us are good at rationalizing why we choose to
do something later rather than now; however, in
order to conquer your yes-buts, you must stick to
your priorities, follow your to-do list and learn
to use your prime time.
5.
Delegate when possible.
Sure, no one can do it as well as
you, but you need to realize that you can’t do it
all, nor should you. If you don’t pass some work
on to others, you will find yourself overloaded
and under increased stress. Delegate both at home
and at work. This requires good planning and
realistic expectations of others. You have to have
faith in the people you pass tasks on to or train
them to do the job. If your planning is
inadequate, you won’t be able to delegate
effectively, if indeed you can do so at all, since
generally we pass off part of a project rather
than the whole thing.
6.
Clarify and verify all communication.
Effective communication is essential
both at home and at the office. For example,
whether you are delegating tasks and
responsibilities to coworkers or to your family,
ask clarifying questions to make sure everyone
understands just what needs to be done. That way,
work gets done right the first time. And never
hesitate to ask clarifying questions when tasks
are assigned to you.
7.
Don’t expect perfection.
While being a perfectionist can at
times be a good thing, especially for accountants,
we all know how it can keep us from achieving our
goals. Perfectionists are often the worst
procrastinators. If they can’t complete an
important task now—perfectly—they waste time on
something unimportant that they can do right. They
would have been better off working on the main
task at hand—even just getting a bit of it done so
it’s not quite as daunting later, or allocating
time to several projects and moving them all
forward a bit. Perfectionists often
believe only they can do something right and
therefore are less likely to ask for help or pass
work on to others. Eventually, their plates
becomes so full they can’t get anything done
right, let alone on time. Always try to do your
best and expect the best from others; however,
while we would all like to get an A+, realize that
sometimes an A or even a B is OK.
8.
Use off-season time effectively.
Many CPAs do a very good job of
planning for the busy season; however, the same
can’t always be said of planning for the slower
times. A common off-season problem is a decrease
in effectiveness—or letting tasks expand to fill
the time available. While a slowdown from the
hectic pace of the busy work season is important
to reduce stress, maintaining a certain level of
effectiveness lets you stay sharp should something
unexpected arise. Keeping on your toes means you
won’t waste time and you’ll have more time to
spend with your children when they are out of
school during the summer.
9.
Make the best use of your time right
now. Occasionally, during the
course of the day, perhaps because a client
cancels an appointment, you find yourself with
some unanticipated free time. Unfortunately, many
of us spend it trying to decide how best to use
it—which in itself can cause stress and be
counterproductive. Sometimes, it can help
to have on hand a list of annoying little tasks
you always seem to put off because they don’t suit
the time you have available. When you’re looking
for something to do, scan the list and see if
there’s something you can easily knock off. At
work, you might start or continue a project,
answer e-mail or verify appointments. At home, you
could take care of personal correspondence, work
on household projects or spend time with family.
Or perhaps this would be the ideal time for a
“minute vacation” to relax. Close your eyes and
imagine that you are at your favorite vacation
spot.
10.
Don’t be afraid to take advantage of
workplace trends that support work/life
balance. While this may appear
obvious, many people still don’t take full
advantage of opportunities that may provide
support as they try to balance their lives. For
example, responses to the 2000 AICPA Work/Life
Executive Committee survey show that women often
believe taking maternity leave or working from
home will make them appear less committed or put
them “out of the loop.” Men are particularly
resistant to taking paternity leave or using the
Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) passed in 1993,
believing others will view them as lacking drive.
In each case the fear is that career growth will
be slowed or hit the proverbial “brick wall.”
Don’t be afraid to take advantage of
opportunities resulting from the FMLA. It allows
leave time for a number of family related
problems. And many states have enacted family
friendly legislation to provide further support
for balancing work and professional lives.
In addition, more and more firms are offering a
variety of family friendly support options from
day care and concierge services to flex-time. If
your personal life is such that continuous
full-time employment is not a viable option, you
may want to take advantage of the trend toward
part-time or contract work. Technology has
transformed the way we work and live. Whether it
be cell phones, pagers, voice mail, fax, e-mail,
teleconferencing or telecommuting technology, if
used effectively, can help you leverage your time.
But technology can also be a time-waster—are you
squandering time surfing the Net for information?
Or do you find yourself constantly interrupted by
answering e-mails or your cell phone or your
pager? Set aside certain times each day to check
e-mail rather than checking it constantly. Turn
off your cell phone and pager. When possible, let
your voice mail pick up rather than answering
every call. At first you may feel out of touch,
but that will pass. Remember: Control the
technology; don’t let it control you. If anything,
you will probably find you are more efficient
without those interruptions, and as a result, you
will have time for the things that are important
to you.
FIGHT UNREASONABLE EXPECTATIONS
Developing a sense of what is reasonable and
not overextending yourself is an important step in
achieving harmony in your life. While we all would
like to be the “superprofessional” as well as the
“supermom/wife/daughter” or
“superdad/husband/son,” this often leads to
unrealistic expectations and puts the kind of
pressure on us that leads only to frustration.
Instead, focus on being the best professional and
the best mom/wife/daughter or dad/husband/ son
that you can be. Try not to worry about what
others expect of you. Just do a good job at what
you’ve deemed important. And while you’re
thinking about it, why not close this magazine,
turn off your cell phone and pager and let your
voice mail pick up any calls that come in. Start
working on your personal mission statement now.
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