Surviving Deadline Week as a Public Accountant
Deadlines are an unfortunate part of the public accounting environment. Whether it's an SEC filing requirement, and IRS tax due date, or a project deadline, public accountants need to understand how to deal with working under tight time constraints. While this work can be challenging by itself, many public accountants forget a core component of their productivity: the fact that they are human. Today, we are going to examine some tips on how to survive (and maybe even thrive) deadline week that are often neglected by the accountants who just want to get the whole thing over with.
#1 – Fix Your Sleep Schedule
A public accountant's sleep schedule is critically important during busy season and especially important during deadline week. Unless they are being supported by an unhealthy amount of energy drinks, public accountants will lose a significant amount of productivity after working for too many hours, which is why scheduling out sleep is so critical for surviving those deadline weeks. It may be tempting to stick it out and work late every night until the job is done. However, this is not the best solution for many people, especially when multiple projects and priorities are thrown in the mix. I personally recommend outlining the following for yourself:
Wake up time
Start work time
End work time
Bed time
By taking the time to define these components of your schedule, you'll be more productive and the time that you are working and the consistency will allow you to maintain a healthy amount of sleep to maintain that productivity for more than one day.
#2 – Plan Your Meals and Snacks
Your sleep schedule isn't the only thing that you should be planning ahead of time. Because of long working hours, constant meetings, and quick turnarounds, many public accountants neglect their diet during deadline week, usually by going too long without having proper meals. This causes an unfortunate side effect of not being productive because the body doesn't have the proper fuel to think or function properly. Many public accountants will either neglect nutrition in their snacks or not eat until they get to a good stopping point, which could be hours after they were supposed to eat! Taking the time to schedule meals and have healthy food prepared ahead of time is essential to surviving a deadline week.
#3 – Prioritize Your Active Jobs With Your Team
One aspect of public accounting that is often overlooked when talking about productivity is the fact that many public accountants work with other public accountants on multiple projects at once. This means that work prioritization and planning is an essential component of delivering the final product. Taking the time to understand the team's priorities will help you prioritize your own day. For example, if a component of a project needs to be reviewed by someone who doesn't have time until 2 days from now, it doesn't necessarily need to be done today. Taking the time to talk to your team and prioritize what needs to be done ahead of time is essential to getting through the tight deadlines with minimal stress.
You can see the common theme here is planning ahead. Deadlines take time away from your ability to focus on the essentials, and having those essentials thought out already is a great way to make decisions quickly and not get overwhelmed with those deadlines. So before your next deadline week, focus on these three things and you will certainly be better off!