Before we dive in today, I want to give you something that will make your life easier this tax season. I’m talking about a practical, week-by-week roadmap designed specifically for accountants who want to stay focused, manage their time, and keep their sanity intact through the busiest weeks of the year.

It’s called the Tax Season Survival Checklist — and it’s free to download right now. This isn’t just a list of reminders; I’ve taken my 35 years of tax seasons and created this strategic guide that walks you through everything from pre-season prep to peak workload weeks, helps you communicate expectations to clients, and even reminds you to take care of yourself along the way.

Whether you’re feeling overwhelmed by deadlines, struggling to balance work and life, or just want a clear plan you can follow week by week, this checklist will help you approach tax season with confidence instead of stress.

Go to thesmarteraccountant.com/surivival-checklist and grab your Tax Season Survival Checklist before we get started — your future self will thank you!

Okay, let’s get started with this week’s episode…

Most accountants are taught a lot of things, but if we really think about it, time management usually isn’t one of them. We learn the rules, the numbers, and the work, but we’re not taught how to handle the days that feel too full or too fast.

That’s why so many accountants say the same thing: “I feel like I’m always behind.” It’s not because we’re doing something wrong—it’s because we were never given the missing piece.

This episode is all about that missing piece. It’s about why time often feels tight, even when you’re working hard.

It’s also about the part of your brain that no one warned you about. I call it the Toddler Brain, and every accountant has one.

Your Toddler Brain wants things to be easy. It wants breaks, comfort, and quick wins, even on days when you need to focus.

The other part of your brain—the helpful, grown-up part that I refer to as The Supervising Parent—wants you to stay on track. That part cares about goals, follow-through, and feeling good about the day.

Both parts show up during your workday as an accountant. And when you don’t understand how they pull you in opposite directions, time starts to feel messy, hard, and as if there’s never enough.

This isn’t your fault. Most accountants don’t know that the push-and-pull in our minds is the real reason time feels so out of control.

But if you think about it, you’ve probably felt it yourself. For example, one minute you’re ready to dig into something important, and the next minute you’re checking email or doing something easier because it feels better in the moment.

It can feel frustrating because you want to do well. You want to feel on top of things. But the problem is that the Toddler Brain is strong, and without guidance, it can take over the whole day.

When that happens, your workday doesn’t feel like something you’re leading. It feels like something that’s happening to you.

And again, it’s because no one ever taught accountants how our brain works with time. We learned everything else, but not this.

The good news is that once you understand the two parts of your brain, everything starts to make more sense. You stop blaming yourself.

You begin to see that time management isn’t about being tougher or trying harder. It’s about knowing which part of your brain is in charge in the moment.

That awareness alone can be a game changer. It can shift the entire feel of your day.

So today, we’re going to talk about the missing piece in most accountants’ education. We’ll look at how your brain plays a bigger role in time than you ever learned in school.

And we’ll talk about why knowing this can change how you work and how you feel.

The real question is this: What if you could work with your brain instead of fighting against it all day?

That’s where the difference begins. And that’s why this conversation matters so much.

Why Most Accountants Struggle With Time Without Realizing It

Most accountants are taught how to do the work, but not how to manage our mind while doing it. We learn the technical parts of the job, but not the skills that help us handle our workload in a calm, steady way.

Because of that, many of us lean on old habits that don’t actually help. For example, things like long to-do lists, multitasking, and checking email all day feel productive, but they often make the day feel even more chaotic.

As we all know, the accounting world also moves fast, which teaches us to stay in constant “go mode.” That urgency makes it easy to react to whatever is in front of us and hard to be intentional about what matters most.

When that becomes our normal, time management starts happening by accident instead of by choice. In other words, we bounce from one thing to the next and hope it all works out.

And as I’ve said on this podcast before, hope is not a time management strategy.

Over time, this creates a sense of pressure that never seems to let up. It’s not because we’re not capable. It’s because there is a gap in our training and education that shows up in daily stress.

Once you see this clearly, it opens the door to understanding why this problem affects so many accountants—and that’s what we’ll look at in the next section.

Why This Problem Hurts Us More Than We Realize

When we aren’t taught how to manage our time in a healthy way, it shows up in all kinds of places. The long days, the rushing, the feeling of trying to keep up—it all adds up, even when we don’t notice it right away.

After a while, that constant stress starts to wear us down. And even if we care about our work and want to do a good job, we can still find ourselves sliding toward burnout.

The issue is that when the day starts to pull you instead of you directing it, it’s easy to think the answer is to work more hours. A lot of us have tried that. We stay later, we start earlier, and we hope it will finally give us some breathing room.

But most of the time, it doesn’t. It usually leaves us tired, wiped out, and wondering why things still feel hard. And when that happens, it’s so easy to turn the blame on ourselves and think we’re the problem.

The truth is, our brains struggle when they’re under too much pressure. Stress makes it harder to think clearly, stay focused, and make good decisions. It even chips away at our confidence and how we feel about the job.

And of course, it doesn’t stay at work. When we’re drained, it affects our time with family, our rest at night, and even the space we need to think about our future.

This problem reaches into so many parts of our lives—not because we’re not capable, but because we were never taught a better way to handle our time and our minds.

Now that we’ve taken a closer look at why this matters so much, let’s talk about what we actually need to know to start changing it in the next section.

What We Need to Understand About Our Brains and Time

One of the biggest eye-openers for us as accountants is realizing that our brains often work against the kind of days we want to have. Not because we’re doing anything wrong, but because our brains are wired to go for whatever feels simple and safe in the moment.

That wiring shows up all day long. Our Toddler brain is always scanning for the “easiest” next move, which is why we sometimes drift toward quick tasks, small wins, or anything that gives us instant relief. It’s not a character flaw—it’s our brain leaning toward comfort.

At the same time, the part of our brain that wants structure and steady progress is also there, the Supervising Parent. It’s the part that feels good when we follow through and stay on track. But it doesn’t yell as loudly as the part that wants the quick, easy option.

But the good news is that when we understand this, it becomes much clearer why our days sometimes feel scattered. It’s not that we don’t care or that we’re not trying. It’s that our two brain patterns are running the show at the same time.

So what can we do?  What I teach that helps most is learning how to gently guide our Toddler brain instead of letting it jump around on its own. That means learning how to effectively make choices ahead of time, not in the heat of the moment. It means giving our days a shape, so we’re not relying on willpower to get through them.

It also means noticing how we feel while we work. Our emotions play a huge role in whether we stick with something or slip into something easier. When we pay attention to that, we get a lot more done without pushing ourselves so hard.

Simple rhythms help too—things like planning once a week, checking during regular times throughout the day, and having a few clear boundaries around our time. Those small habits make our days feel lighter because we’re not constantly guessing about what to do next.

When we put all of this together, we stop believing that a new app or a new planner will fix everything. Instead, we start using our brain in a way that helps us feel more calm and in control.

To show you exactly how this works in real life, I’m going to share a client story that brings all of this to life in the next section.

Becoming a Smarter Accountant: The Difference In Learning Effective Time Management

I’ve worked with a lot of accountants on time management, but I once worked with a client who was working nights, weekends, and early mornings—pretty much every spare minute he had. And even with all those hours, he still felt behind and stressed.

He was sure his workload was the problem. He kept saying, “If I could just get through this pile, things would finally settle down.” But the pile never got smaller. No matter how hard he pushed, the finish line kept moving.

He also felt embarrassed, as if he should “know better by now.” He’d been an accountant long enough to feel like he should have figured out how to get everything done without running himself into the ground.

As we talked, he started to realize something important. It wasn’t the work that was overwhelming him. It was the fact that he had never been taught how to manage his time in a way that made his days feel steady and doable. 

Like a lot of accountants, he was given work to do, a budgeted amount of time to do it in, but not the skills of effective time management.  No one had ever explained how his brain reacted to pressure, or how planning and simple boundaries could make the whole week feel lighter.

Once he started working with me and understood that, things began to shift. We made a few small changes—weekly planning, checking in with how he felt before diving into a task, and setting some clear, gentle time boundaries so he wasn’t working around the clock.

Nothing extreme. Nothing complicated. Just small steps that supported his mind instead of fighting it.

Within a few weeks, he told me he felt calmer than he had in years. He was getting more done in less time. He wasn’t dragging himself through long days anymore, and he said his work felt cleaner and more focused.

We then worked on more personalized time management strategies for his workload and personal life, but starting small made a bigger impact than he ever imagined.

And here’s the part he couldn’t believe at first: his workload didn’t change at all. Same clients. Same deadlines. Same tasks.

What changed was how he used his brain during the day. Once he had the missing piece, everything felt more manageable.

For the first time in a long time, he actually believed he could have a sustainable career without burning himself out.

The bottom line is that stories like his remind us that we aren’t the problem. We were simply never shown the skills that make a workday feel manageable.

With that in mind, let’s bring everything together in a quick recap in the next section.

Key Takeaway and Action Item

We’ve looked at why so many of us struggle with time, even when we’re working hard and doing our best. The simple truth is that most accountants are never taught the mental side of time management. We learn how to do the work, but not how to guide our minds through the day.

Because of that missing piece, stress builds, overwhelm grows, and our days feel harder than they need to be. It’s not from lack of effort. It’s from not knowing how our brains actually work when we’re facing a full workload.

Real time management doesn’t start with tools or tricks. It starts with understanding your mind. Once you know what your brain does under pressure, things that used to feel heavy start to feel lighter.

And the best part is that it doesn’t take huge changes. Small shifts—tiny adjustments in how you think, plan, and support yourself—can make your days calmer, your confidence stronger, and your work feel much more manageable.

If there’s one thing to take away from today, it’s this: you can’t outwork a mismanaged mind. The more you learn how your brain works, the easier everything becomes.

So here’s a question you can ask yourself today:

“What part of my brain is running the show right now?”

This question matters because it helps you pause long enough to see whether your Supervising Parent Brain or your Toddler Brain is making the decisions. When you notice which one is speaking, you can choose a direction on purpose instead of reacting from pressure or stress.

Even asking this once a day can make a surprising difference. It gives you a moment to reset, breathe, and move forward with more clarity.

Now let’s wrap up this episode with a personal story in the Pulling Back the Curtain section.

Pulling Back the Curtain

Pulling back the curtain…

When I first started my career, I honestly thought feeling overwhelmed was normal. I thought it was just “what accountants do.” You work long hours, you stay late, you push through, and you hope things eventually get easier.

For a long time, I believed the only answer was to work more. If I was behind, I worked later. If I felt stressed, I squeezed in another hour. If I couldn’t catch up, I assumed I just needed to try harder. Like a lot of you, I never questioned it, because everyone around me was doing the same thing.

But the truth hit me slowly. Nothing changed, even with all the extra effort. The long hours didn’t fix the stress. The late nights didn’t make the workload smaller. And no matter how much I pushed myself, I always felt like I was running out of time.

It wasn’t until much later that I realized the real problem. No one had ever taught me how to manage my mind, my emotions, or my time in a way that worked with my brain instead of against it. I knew how to do the work, but not how to move through my day without burning myself out.

Thankfully, everything shifted once I learned how my brain actually worked. When I started using the tool I teach my clients called The Model, checking in with how I felt, planning my week ahead of time, and focusing on what mattered most, things finally clicked. 

My days felt lighter. My work got better. And I realized that the problem was never me—it was the missing piece in my accounting education.

If you’re listening and thinking, “This sounds like me,” you’re not alone. And nothing has gone wrong. You just haven’t been taught this yet.

If you want to see where you stand with your Toddler Brain versus your Supervising Parent Brain, you can take The Smarter Accountant Quiz at www.thesmarteraccountant.com. It’s a great way to see whether you’re underusing your accountant brain without realizing it.

And if you’re ready to learn these skills on a personal level, you can also schedule a 30-minute strategy call with me at www.thesmarteraccountant.com/calendar. We’ll look at what’s going on for you and what small changes can make your workday feel completely different.

You don’t have to keep doing things the hard way. You can learn the missing piece. And once you do, everything gets easier.

And if you know another accountant who might need some effective time management, please share the episode with them.  Just the awareness of why you might have issues with your time management can give someone a starting point for learning a better way.

The truth is that you’re already smart.  But this podcast, I promise, will show you how to be smarter.