Other CPAs often ask me, “How do you find time to run a CPA firm, publish a magazine, write
books, keep a blog, and create consulting products?” The truth is that I learned like everyone
else—the hard way.
One day I woke up and realized that I didn’t control my time. Everyone else did! Being in the
service business, I assumed that it was my duty to drop everything and answer every single
phone call, email, or walk-in question. I thought this would help me grow my business. In truth,
since I didn’t value my time, neither did my clients. As a CPA, all I can sell is my knowledge
and my time. I had to start treating both like the valuable resources they are.
Over the years I have read many time management books, and I can honestly say that most are
useless without the proper motivation. Until you, the business owner, decide it is time to take
control of your time, others will continue to decide how you invest your time.
One warning: Don’t be rude about it. I have found that explaining why you do something when
the customer/client/patient first hires you is the key. I start the relationship by explaining that the
only way I can do my best work is by controlling the interruptions. I only return phone calls
once a day and I only respond to emails at the end of the day. I then go on to tell them that if
they have an emergency, the best thing to do is to speak with my assistant, who will relay the
message.
Here are my favorite and most valuable time savings tips (in no particular order):
1. Schedule blocks of time to get projects done. During that time, don’t allow interruptions!
Don’t answer the phone. Don’t check social media. Don’t check your email. Tell your
staff that unless it’s an emergency (there better be a fire or blood), don’t interrupt.
2. Say no to drop-ins. Just say no to “Do you have a minute?” or “One quick question.”
We all know it’s never just a minute, and it’s rarely just one quick question. Just say no!
Tell them you are on a tight deadline and they will have to set up an appointment. Be
firm! If you must talk to them now, set a time limit at the beginning. “Hi John, great to
see you. I’m up against a deadline. Can we do this in two minutes or do we need to set
up an appointment?”
3. Leave the office. When you have a project that must get done, go home, go to the coffee
shop, go to another office…JUST GO! Trust me, the world gets along fine without you
for a few hours.
4. Don’t answer the phone. Really. It’s not against the law. A ringing phone is an
invitation to speak. Just decline at this time. Again, there is nothing that the rest of the
world can’t handle if you don’t answer the call. If it’s from your kids, have them text you
a code saying that it is important. And again there better be flames or blood involved!
5. Don’t check email or social media during scheduled work time. I check my email early
in the morning, late at night, or when I am waiting in line somewhere. No exceptions. I
check my Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn accounts once a week at night using
FlipBoard, which gathers them all together.
6. Create a VIP list of who can interrupt you. This is a list of the people who you are
willing to accept interruptions from. Who is on the VIP list? My wife (I’ve been married
35 years this December. This doesn’t happen by being stupid!), my kids, and the clients
who pay me the big dollars. That’s it.
7. Delegate the answering of all but the most important phone calls. The week before my
last deadline, I checked my voicemail and had 19 messages waiting. Let’s assume that
each one takes five minutes to listen to and make notes about, and then an extra 10
minutes to handle the problem. That’s nearly five hours! And this happens most days
during our busy season. So be brutal—redirect as many calls as you can to your staff.
8. Start and stop meetings on time. Don’t be late, and don’t tolerate meetings that run late.
If you have a meeting with someone and it is running late, set a timer. If you allocated a
half hour, that’s all you can spend. If they come in 20 minutes late, let them know that
you only have 10 minutes left and get started. Remember, if you don’t value your time,
who will?
9. Prepare in advance. Don’t show up to any meeting without being prepared. Have an
outline of the problem and have a plan of action for solving it. At a bare minimum, you
should make sure you know what the meeting is about! If you have a major project, use a
mind map program to help you plan it out in advance. This way you will have a much
better idea of what it really will take to finish the project, and you’ll be able to explain it
with your client.
10. Don’t answer your employees’ questions. You hired and trained competent employees.
If you didn’t, train them or hire new ones. Now treat them like trained competent
employees and refuse to treat them like children. Make them come up with a possible
solution before they come to you with a problem. You want them to think things through
and find a way to solve most problems without you. Don’t make their jobs easy by being
their resident guru.
11. Minimize meetings. No greater time waster exists in the business world than the
meeting. If it isn’t going to make you money, don’t have the meeting! Don’t meet with a
prospective client until they have been screened. Don’t meet with a sales rep unless you
asked for the meeting. Don’t meet with the person who wants to “network”. Before you
schedule any meeting, ask yourself if a conference call or email would work just as well.
Warning: This doesn’t include your customers! You should meet with them often,
especially your best customers.
12. Use prioritized lists to track your work. Put everything that needs to be done on a list and
forget about it. Review the list when you schedule your day or do work for that customer
or client. But first, assign every item on your list a priority number based on what is
important for reaching your goals. Don’t let others set your priorities. Ignore
unimportant things. You will be amazed how often someone else can handle the task. If
it can’t be ignored, then delay it.
13. Use a Tickler file. There are lots of organization programs out there. The trick is to use
them. The most successful person I know uses a simple folder with slots numbered from
1 to 31. Any time he has to do something, he puts a note in that day’s number. For
example, if the phone bill is due on the 20th of the month, he puts the bill in slot number
20. Sure, it’s low-tech, but it works for him. And that’s the key—find something that
works for you. Doing everything at the last minute is a great way to waste time.
14. Eliminate as much travel as possible. GoToMeeting, Skype, and Google Hangouts are
some of the best productivity tools out there. Our clients really hate to pay us for travel
time. These programs have allowed us to have meetings, do trainings, and answer
bookkeeping questions without having to leave the office. I once had to drive 30
minutes, one way, just to answer a client’s software question. Once I saw the problem, it
only took me five minutes to solve it. Now all of these five-minute appointments really
only take five minutes.
15. Block time for yourself. Make appointments with yourself. We all do a good job of
keeping appointments with others, but we don’t treat ourselves as important. When I
want to get this magazine done, I put the prep time on my calendar. When I am creating
a new product, I schedule it on my calendar. I don’t break this appointment for any
reason.
16. Group like projects together. It takes all of us time to get up to speed when we shift from
one type of work to another. That is why I only return phone calls at one time. I review
tax returns on one day. I answer tax correspondence another day. Grouping like projects
together helps you get work done much more quickly.
17. Set deadlines. I set deadlines on everything I do. The pressure to finish on time forces
me to eliminate all the fluff and interruptions. I take all of my work projects and set a
time budget at the beginning of each one. If a client is only willing to pay $1,000 and I
want to make at least $250/hour, then the project can only take four hours. If I don’t
believe it can be done in four hours, I pass on it or raise my fee.
18. Stop trying to be perfect. For most things, good is good enough. Be perfect only if that
is crucial to reaching your goal. Very little requires perfection. In fact, the cost of
getting that last 1 percent of a project perfect can often be more costly than the cost of
completing the first 99 percent. Don’t fall for the perfection trap.
19. Plan each week out in advance. Block the time and don’t deviate. Any new appointment
must be for the following week unless it is clear to me that it is really an emergency.
(Again, blood or fire better be part of the emergency!)
20. All appointments are scheduled according to your work demands. Block time for
appointments that your assistant can fill. When these are filled, they should skip to the
next week until they find a time that works. Before I started doing this, I had many a
week where my staff had me fully booked, and I never got any work done. Who is really
in charge here? Me or them?
21. Work on the most important thing first, while you are fresh. This is the biggest secret of
the most productive people I know. They start with what is important and if there is any
time left when that is done, they move on to the items that are calling out for answers but
really have no effect on the bottom line.
22. Streamline your processes. I often finish more tax returns in a short amount of time than
most people. That is because I give myself a ridiculous deadline and then figure out how
to get it done in that allotted time. What should be done first? What can be delegated?
What can be ignored or delayed until later? When you give yourself less time to finish a
task you are forced to focus on what is truly necessary and important. Remember, work
always expands to fit the time allotted. This doesn’t mean that the quality of the work
will get any better. In fact, it often ends up being done at the last minute anyway because
you know you can take your time.
23. Delegate or outsource everything you can. Delegate parts of projects. I just finished
work for the corporate tax extension deadline. Doing the average return takes up to ten
hours. About a third of the time is matching last year’s return and cleaning up the
obvious errors. This I delegate. Another third of the time requires a higher level of
review and planning, and so I do this. The final third is putting the information in the
program, printing the return, and assembling it. This I delegate. Now I am only spending
about 2-3 hours per return while guaranteeing that the quality of the work doesn’t suffer.
24. Make decisions quickly and firmly. This is a key characteristic of people who
accomplish things. They make decisions quickly and stick with them. They don’t waste
time pondering and worrying. They size up the situation as best as they can and make a
decision. The secret is that very little can’t be fixed if they are wrong. Making a wrong
decision often helps you learn what the right decision should be the next time.
25. Results are all that matter. Focus on your goals and make all of your decisions with them
in mind. Keeping the end goal in sight gives you purpose and helps you press on to get
things completed. This is a big difference between successful people and those that
aren’t. Successful people complete the things that help them achieve their goals. They
know that all the other tasks are just busy work designed to get in their way, and they
treat them accordingly.
Action Tips:
1. Read the article.
2. Highlight those items on my list that you feel would work for you.
3. Implement the changes and record your results.
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