Your work life should never feel like a sprint-paced marathon, yet that’s how many accountants and finance professionals feel about work. You jump from one task to the other, rushing to meet deadlines, yet oftentimes it does not feel like you are doing enough with your time. Professionals who handle numbers and data are supposed to be organised, aren’t they? Yet, time management often proves to be one of your biggest hurdles as a professional.
So, the big question is: why is this? Why do many smart and organised accountants and finance professionals struggle with time management? We’ll use this blog post to address this question and, of course, offer a solution.
What is Time Management?
Time management is the process of planning and organising how much time you spend on specific activities to work more efficiently and effectively. It involves prioritising tasks, setting goals, allocating time appropriately, and minimising distractions to make the best use of your available time. Time management is more than just following a schedule for the day.
Now let’s see why it’s important to have good time management skills.
Why Accountants and Finance Professionals Need Better Time Management Skills
The work routine of accountants and finance professionals is often one packed with compliance, precision and stakeholder trust. There is a constant demand to prepare one report or another, and chase never-ending deadlines. That being said, good time management skills will ensure you’re not consistently caught up in a “crisis mode”, which is something that may cause work errors.
Aside from being able to meet deadlines, good time management skills come in handy for career growth. As you aim higher on the career ladder, the tasks become less hands-on and more about complex problem-solving and leading others. To succeed as you go higher, you will need time to think and reflect deeply, and work on professional development. For your career growth, better time management skills make you a strategic professional.
Good time management helps you:
- Achieve more in less time
- Reduce stress
- Improve focus and productivity
- Create a better work-life balance
Essentially, it’s not about doing everything but about doing the right things at the right time.
8 Reasons Accountants and Finance Professionals Fail at Time Management
Too busy
There is simply too much on the to-do list. We are competent and reliable individuals, after all! Often, there is so much going on that we really don’t know where to start. The temptation is simply to start working through the actions on our list. The order is often determined by who shouts the loudest, or the items we like most or dislike the least. You will benefit from the hacks I provided in one of my YouTube videos. Watch here.
Competing priorities
As finance professionals, our work is often important and time-critical, and we may end up working for a range of stakeholders, all with competing priorities and timelines. This can often put us in uncomfortable (and sometimes impossible) situations.
Everything’s urgent
Part of the problem is that everything seems urgent. Too many deadlines that seem immovable – external reporting, internal reporting, budget/forecast timelines, month-end, and quarter-end. The challenge is that there are so many things coming at us, so we just keep our heads down and try to work through it.
Not clear on top priorities
When we have so much to do, it’s not always clear which is the highest priority. And what does that mean anyway? Is it the most time-critical? The things that are important (but not time sensitive)? Or the person shouting the loudest?
Scope creep
What we’re asked for or what we agree to take on, and what we ultimately need to deliver are not always the same. Sometimes the scope “creeps”, enlarges, or expands significantly over time. Sometimes we are more than aware of this happening, and other times we are caught unawares, until we look closely and see what a request has turned into. Be clear on the scope and boundaries, and manage these actively.
We might also play a part in this, delivering more than we’re asked. This is certainly something to be mindful of!
Procrastination
We might be in the habit of putting things off:
- Putting things off because they are hard/undesirable tasks.
- Putting things off because they are not due yet.
- Putting things off because we can see the value in them.
- Putting things off because we don’t yet feel ready.
Which of these sounds familiar to you? You’re probably not alone!
Procrastination can also be an intentional technique. Putting things off until close to a deadline (for motivation or increased creativity) or to optimise time spent on the task, Parkinson’s Law states that work expands or contracts to fit the time available for its completion.
Perfectionism
Some of us have been conditioned to get things as perfect as they can be. But life is not a school test. Perfection rarely exists, and it can be time-consuming and energy-draining chasing it. It’s great to have high standards, but it’s also useful to appreciate when good enough is good enough.
Detail-focused
A challenge for many finance professionals is getting stuck in the details. This can take up a lot of unnecessary time and, even worse, prevent us from seeing the bigger picture.
So we’ve taken a look at time management and why it’s an important skill to master. Recognising the challenges associated with it is one thing; accomplishing it is another. If you want to learn how you can reclaim your time without messing up your career goals, I recommend you read our blog post. If you desire to build a sustainable career by having a more harmonious work and life schedule, then our Work Life Balance course could be exactly what you need, giving you the perfect strategies to thrive.
