I received my income tax returns from my accountant, Michele, over the weekend and am getting a small refund. Whew.

As a practical joke this year, I came to her office to deliver my well organized material but instead of sharing that with her, I told her I did not have time to categorize material and was instead just dropping off a legal box of papers hoping she would have time to go through everything…Not funny I’m sure she thought!

Accountants report a high degree of stress in their work with over 50% reporting increasingly higher levels over the past 5 years. Predictably these relate to workload volume, time deadlines, and changing rules and requirements from the IRS, not to mention dealing with client anxieties.

These survey results are not much different from what I hear from most professionals (and non-professionals) these days. The workplace and, in fact, our lives are moving faster and faster and we usually don’t have good tools for dealing with them effectively.

Some of our favorite Resilience Advantage tools for workload management include:

• Focus on your energy and protect your time (you don’t manage time.)
• Get priorities aligned. The tax deadline in April 15^th. Everything that has to be done by then gets to the front of the line.
• Ask for help if you need it. Others want to help and their support will see you through.
• Have some fun.

You can breathe a bit easier now that taxes are done. Make sure you thank your tax expert whether it is your Michele at her office or your spouse who finished it up on Turbotax.

Thanks Michele!

Note: I’m drafting a new series of e-books about resilience in different fields. Would love to hear from you about the particular challenges in your industry.

© Richard Citrin, All rights reserved, 2018

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