09 Jun 8 Ways To Stay Motivated This Busy Season
We all have a “busy time”, it does vary for each business but at the end of the day, we all have them. When it gets busy how do you keep up with the accounting stuff and not let it fall by the wayside? Here are a few tips to stay motivated and get things done.
Keep a routine.
Have some “hell or high water” routines you hold to no matter what. Think of this as putting your oxygen mask on first on an airplane. You can’t help others if you don’t help yourself. Nobody doesn’t want to know how much money is actually in the bank account or know what bills are outstanding. Set time aside every week, even if it is 30 minutes twice a week to keep up with the accounting, uploads, and responses to your bookkeeper. Be regimented about this.
Start your day right.
Start your day with quick accounting to-dos, don’t leave them for late in the day when you’re tired, and just want your day to be over. Take care of things before the day gets away from you and other things pile up. This will help you make sure these tasks get done.
Streamline where you can.
Are there things that don’t need to go through you? What can go directly to the bookkeeper or what can you have the bookkeeper cc’d on so you aren’t holding things up? You don’t have to touch everything for it to get done properly. Remove yourself as the bottleneck where you can to create less work for you and a more seamless process across the board. That cell phone bill and water bill probably don’t need to go to you first, the bookkeeper should tell you if it is suddenly much higher than normal anyway, If you are worried that your bookkeeper will not talk to you about those, talk to them and they should be willing to work with you on what will work best for you and them.
Delegate.
That brings us to delegation. Utilizing trusted employees to facilitate administrative tasks can be freeing. Now you may not want employees approving payroll and making cash flow decisions, but they can certainly pick up, open, and scan mail, track down receipts, fill out expense reports, and even make deposits with the right checks and balances in place. Remember, you don’t need to do everything for everything to get done, this is why you hire trusted employees and subcontractors.
Leverage online access.
Leveraging online access can help you do things on the go and best utilize your time. What can you see on your phone or online so that you don’t have to be at your desk to address something? Create a list on paper, in your phone notes, or mentally so you have it available when needed.
Have a system for your EMAIL!
Here is our system… Each day I look through my email once in the morning, once midday, and once before I check out for the day. I forward anything that has come in that is financial to my accounting app (email forwarding is amazing) and archive those emails so I know what I have already forwarded and what I have not. I do this consistently so I’m not searching for things later.
I have promotional emails sent to an alias or separate email address so what I need to deal with isn’t lost among sale ads and invitations for product reviews. I have a personal and a work email so that my kid’s baseball schedule and my work emails aren’t all mixed together making it harder to get sidetracked.
I archive what I have dealt with (I don’t quite hit the zero inbox but I’m pretty darn close). It is really hard to have a clear view of what you need to deal with in an inbox with 10,000+ items.
I utilize alias emails and have things that don’t need to go to me, go directly to the appropriate staff member. This takes us back to how you should delegate what you can to trusted team members.
Have a place where the mail goes.
Make sure you create a place where your mail goes when/if you can’t get to it right away. When the mail is in your purse, under the seat of your car, behind the counter at the store, and on a clipboard behind the bar, it’s more likely that things are going to get misplaced, lost, and forgotten. I have one inbox where the mail goes and I make sure that the junk mail goes straight to the trash.
Again, consistency is key and so is making it easy for yourself. Make sure the “mail basket” is easy to access, in your line of sight (out of sight, out of mind), and allows you to get a quick read on how much is there (translucent plastic or wire baskets are great because you can see if there is a lot or a little). Make sure you get to the bottom of that basket at least once a week. I like mine not to be fixed to the wall so that I can take it to the couch and open and preview things in the evening. Do you ever watch tv while going through the mail?
Reward yourself.
And last, but certainly not least… Reward yourself. If it is always an endless cycle with no definitive end and no reward, it can feel exhausting. When you have completed your weekly accounting duties get yourself a coffee or a smoothie, take a few minutes to acknowledge your accomplishment, and when possible, have others applaud or celebrate with you that you got it done!
How do you keep motivated during your busy season? Comment and tell us or send us a message on Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter!
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