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Lutherf

Lutherf

DP Veteran
Joined
Sep 16, 2012
Messages
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Location
Tucson, AZ
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Male
Political Leaning
Conservative
OK...one more week to go but I've been doing regular 12 hour (and more) days since Oct. and I'm toast. Sleep has become more or less a formality, I need a haircut and my diet has completely gone to hell. My 'exercise' for the day now consists of walking to the CVS next door to buy club soda and beef jerky. It's like every time I see the light at the end of the tunnel a little voice in my head says "It's a train!!! Get out of there!"

What do you do make sure that you keep on moving when it gets like this?
 
I get even more persistent and hard-headed than I already am. ;)
 
Lutherf said:
OK...one more week to go but I've been doing regular 12 hour (and more) days since Oct. and I'm toast. Sleep has become more or less a formality, I need a haircut and my diet has completely gone to hell. My 'exercise' for the day now consists of walking to the CVS next door to buy club soda and beef jerky. It's like every time I see the light at the end of the tunnel a little voice in my head says "It's a train!!! Get out of there!"

What do you do make sure that you keep on moving when it gets like this?
Click to expand...

You have a goal with a timetable? The only way I have figured out how to keep that kind of pace for months on end is to have a solid realizable goal. And even then I was one cranky SOB. People would flee when they saw me, I was that much an asshole. I lived up to my last name which is derived from a really big cat in Africa. I would have quit after about six months of that kind of 12+hr 7day a week pace if I did not have a solid realizable plan and achievable goal with an end date. You NEED light at the end of the tunnel otherwise you go nuts or you just up and quit. I've seen it many times in in high pressure environments. When you make your goal make sure it is realistically realizable. Also have milestones to your goal. If its monetary then divide the goal up into bit sized chunks and then after each time you pass one milestone cut back your schedule for a day and celebrate and relax a little. Other goals can be done in a similar way. If you focus on the small goals eventually you get to the big goals. There's a cliché I like to use, If you want to eat an elephant you have to eat it one bite at a time. It seems to work for me.
 
Lutherf said:
OK...one more week to go but I've been doing regular 12 hour (and more) days since Oct. and I'm toast. Sleep has become more or less a formality, I need a haircut and my diet has completely gone to hell. My 'exercise' for the day now consists of walking to the CVS next door to buy club soda and beef jerky. It's like every time I see the light at the end of the tunnel a little voice in my head says "It's a train!!! Get out of there!"

What do you do make sure that you keep on moving when it gets like this?
Click to expand...

I am also going to add this. If you want to keep your health you are going to HAVE to plan and schedule in exercising and eating decently and including sleep if necessary. You will break yourself if you don't. You may even have to slow down your pace a bit too. Running at wide open throttle is not good for the longevity of any machine mechanical or biological. I have learned these lessons the hard way.
 
PirateMk1 said:
You have a goal with a timetable? The only way I have figured out how to keep that kind of pace for months on end is to have a solid realizable goal. And even then I was one cranky SOB. People would flee when they saw me, I was that much an asshole. I lived up to my last name which is derived from a really big cat in Africa. I would have quit after about six months of that kind of 12+hr 7day a week pace if I did not have a solid realizable plan and achievable goal with an end date. You NEED light at the end of the tunnel otherwise you go nuts or you just up and quit. I've seen it many times in in high pressure environments. When you make your goal make sure it is realistically realizable. Also have milestones to your goal. If its monetary then divide the goal up into bit sized chunks and then after each time you pass one milestone cut back your schedule for a day and celebrate and relax a little. Other goals can be done in a similar way. If you focus on the small goals eventually you get to the big goals. There's a cliché I like to use, If you want to eat an elephant you have to eat it one bite at a time. It seems to work for me.
Click to expand...

:lamo

Yeah..I definitely have a goal. It's to get this damned pile of tax returns off my desk and into the hands of my clients by a week from today! The only problem is that no matter how many I do more keep showing up:sinking:

Seriously though, I definitely do the goal thing and it helps a lot but at this point the goals are so short term it's kind of funny. I'll put a pile of folders on my desk and give myself until a certain time to get them done, take a short break and do it again. The season starts out with monthly goals but now I'm down to hourly ones:lol:

I can understand "cranky". I've still got people calling up who want an appointment. Thank god my secretary is good about explaining what the situation is because I'm really tempted to just laugh at them when they ask such a crazy question.
 
Lutherf said:
OK...one more week to go but I've been doing regular 12 hour (and more) days since Oct. and I'm toast. Sleep has become more or less a formality, I need a haircut and my diet has completely gone to hell. My 'exercise' for the day now consists of walking to the CVS next door to buy club soda and beef jerky. It's like every time I see the light at the end of the tunnel a little voice in my head says "It's a train!!! Get out of there!"

What do you do make sure that you keep on moving when it gets like this?
Click to expand...

I would never want a job where i spend every waking hour of my life working. That's not living in my opinion.
Can you reduce your hours?
 
Take a vacation.
 
Lutherf said:
:lamo

Yeah..I definitely have a goal. It's to get this damned pile of tax returns off my desk and into the hands of my clients by a week from today! The only problem is that no matter how many I do more keep showing up:sinking:

Seriously though, I definitely do the goal thing and it helps a lot but at this point the goals are so short term it's kind of funny. I'll put a pile of folders on my desk and give myself until a certain time to get them done, take a short break and do it again. The season starts out with monthly goals but now I'm down to hourly ones:lol:

I can understand "cranky". I've still got people calling up who want an appointment. Thank god my secretary is good about explaining what the situation is because I'm really tempted to just laugh at them when they ask such a crazy question.
Click to expand...

My sister in law does tax returns in my CPA office, so I have a very good idea what you are going though. Its kind of interesting with them my sister in law wants to get in as many easy clients as she can and my CPA currently is not taking on new clients at all. Two different philosophies that both seem to work in the same office. I would suggest if you are that "over worked" that you might want to consider for next season establishing your client base to a certain number of long term clients and farm the easier returns out to someone whom you know that has quality work or hire and train someone with excellent work ethic in the off season, to help take the load of your shoulders. That's what Mike my CPA does, in fact that's how my sister in law ended up working there with them. It sounds like your reputation precedes you which is a good thing for business and a bad thing for your current sanity.:) If there one thing I have learned from business, it's this, its better to have more work than you can handle than not enough work. April 16 will come before you know it. Then you can relax and enjoy life for a bit. After all you'll have earned your R&R.
 
madman said:
I would never want a job where i spend every waking hour of my life working. That's not living in my opinion.
Can you reduce your hours?
Click to expand...

The benefit is that it's my business. If I want to take a month off I do it. The price I pay 6 months a year of insanity so it's not too bad a trade in my book!
 
PirateMk1 said:
My sister in law does tax returns in my CPA office, so I have a very good idea what you are going though. Its kind of interesting with them my sister in law wants to get in as many easy clients as she can and my CPA currently is not taking on new clients at all. Two different philosophies that both seem to work in the same office. I would suggest if you are that "over worked" that you might want to consider for next season establishing your client base to a certain number of long term clients and farm the easier returns out to someone whom you know that has quality work or hire and train someone with excellent work ethic in the off season, to help take the load of your shoulders. That's what Mike my CPA does, in fact that's how my sister in law ended up working there with them. It sounds like your reputation precedes you which is a good thing for business and a bad thing for your current sanity.:) If there one thing I have learned from business, it's this, its better to have more work than you can handle than not enough work. April 16 will come before you know it. Then you can relax and enjoy life for a bit. After all you'll have earned your R&R.
Click to expand...

I do carry additional staff during tax season and could never get it all done without them. I have to be a little careful in moving clients around because this information is really personal to a lot of people and they have to trust someone new which isn't always easy. The other thing that happens with more staff is that I get more questions which is more time consuming but it's also necessary. I've tried to set a meeting schedule so that we can iron out all the wrinkles in one fell swoop but it NEVER works out because there are just too many contingencies that come up.

I've been trying to coax a buddy of mine who has an office around the corner to partner up so that we can share resources a little more but it's slow going.
 
I worked 7 12's for years not untypical in the oil production business. I had no trouble doing it as I saw it as my avenue to build my retirement nest egg and now at 65 I am set. I'll work untill I feel like quitting but I have no money worries whatsoever. So my advice is get it while you can and save it.
 
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