Category: Podcast

Before I get started I just want to share a testimonial with you.  In each episode I share the story of an accountant that I’ve worked with and showed you there before and after journey, but today I’d also like to share a client’s experience in their own words.

This is from Kim, a CPA in California.  She writes:

“When I started working with Dawn, I was at a breaking point. I had recently left a Big Four public accounting firm where I was working long hours, feeling overwhelmed, undervalued, and ultimately burned out. After taking a few months off to recover, I knew I needed support to make the most of my fresh start, and that’s when I began working with Dawn.

If every accountant had the opportunity to work with Dawn, I truly believe we would see a profound shift in the culture of our profession. There would be fewer burnout cases, and more accountants thriving—not just in their careers, but in their entire lives. Dawn has made a lasting impact on mine, and I couldn’t be more grateful for her support.“

It’s testimonials like this that make me proud to do what I do.  I set out to be a thought leader in the accounting profession when I wrote my book and I love hearing from clients about their experience doing the work with me.

As I once told someone on a consultation call, “Reading my book is like looking at the menu.  Working with me is like having the meal.”  I truly believe that by becoming a Smarter Accountant, you can have the successful, sustainable accounting career and life that you want and deserve.

Okay, let’s get started with this episode…

If you’re like most accountants, you probably have a to-do list close by right now. Maybe it’s on your desk, or in your favorite app, or scribbled across a few sticky notes.

To-do lists are supposed to help you feel organized. They’re supposed to help you stay on track and feel productive.

But a lot of accountants feel the exact opposite when they look at their list. Instead of feeling calm and focused, they feel behind before the day even starts.

The list never seems to shrink. You cross off one thing and five new tasks magically appear.

There’s always that one big thing that keeps showing up week after week. You write it down because you want to check it off, but it keeps following you around.

“Clean out the garage” looks simple enough when it’s sitting there on the page. But when you think about actually doing it, your brain feels overwhelmed and stuck.

Or maybe you write something like “work on the business plan.” You want to make progress, but your mind starts spinning because there are so many different ways you could start.

You glance over tasks from last month or even last year. Just thinking about them brings up stress and frustration.

Then there’s the procrastination that creeps in. You look at the list and suddenly cleaning out your email inbox or reorganizing your pens feels more doable.

When that happens, guilt comes in fast. You tell yourself you should be better, you should be more disciplined, you should already have this figured out.

The worst part is thinking that everyone else seems to be handling it better than you. It feels like you’re the only one falling behind.

Your to-do list becomes a reminder of everything you haven’t done yet. Instead of helping you move forward, it holds you in a constant state of pressure.

And that pressure doesn’t help you get anything done. It actually slows you down.

So you end up re-writing the same tasks over and over again. You hope tomorrow will magically be different.

But the stress is still there. And the list is still waiting.

If any of this sounds familiar, nothing has gone wrong. You are not the problem here.

Your brain simply isn’t designed to handle long, vague lists without direction. It needs clarity, structure, and support.

Most accountants are trying to manage tasks without managing their brain first. That’s what makes everything feel so much harder than it needs to be.

So if you feel like your to-do list never gets done, you’re not alone. And you’re definitely not lazy or broken.

You just haven’t been taught a better way yet. But that’s exactly what we’re going to talk about today.

Why To-Do Lists Fail the Accountant Brain

A to-do list makes everything look equal, but your brain knows that’s not true. It sees some tasks as huge mountains and others as tiny pebbles.

When everything is mixed together, your brain doesn’t know where to start. It chooses the easiest thing, even if it’s not the thing you actually need to do.

To-do lists also leave out the most important information. They don’t tell you when you’ll do something or how long it should take.

Without time attached, tasks feel like they could take forever. Your brain avoids anything that feels endless.

Your to-do list is basically a running list of decisions. And the brain gets tired of making decisions all day long.

Once decision fatigue kicks in, the list becomes blurry. You freeze or do nothing at all.

A to-do list also asks your brain to make a plan in the moment. But the stressed, tired version of you is rarely the one that makes the best decisions.

Your brain loves clarity. It needs the next step, not the entire mountain.

Most accountants don’t write the next action. They write the project and hope their brain will magically figure out the rest.

But your brain resists anything unclear. It taps out quickly and redirects you to something easier.

The real issue isn’t the tasks themselves. It’s that your system isn’t helping your brain do what it’s capable of doing.

You’ve been taught to rely on the list. No one taught you how to support the brain using the list.

Once you see the gap, everything starts to make more sense. You begin to understand why your list feels heavy instead of helpful.

And now that you know the list isn’t the villain, there’s something important to understand about why this causes so much stress. That’s exactly what we’re going to get into next.

The Hidden Cost of Relying on To-Do Lists

When your to-do list doesn’t get done, your confidence takes a hit. You start questioning your abilities, not the system.

Each unfinished task creates mental clutter that follows you around. Even when you’re not working, your brain keeps reminding you of what you didn’t do.

That constant mental pressure increases stress hormones. Over time, that stress makes focusing even harder.

Instead of feeling accomplished, you end the day feeling behind. That feeling becomes a habit, and habits shape how you see yourself.

Your brain remembers the discomfort of not finishing. The next time you look at the list, your brain already expects failure.

That expectation shows up as procrastination. It’s your brain trying to avoid a negative emotional experience.

The more you avoid a task, the bigger and scarier it seems. Soon even something simple feels overwhelming.

At that point, your brain tries to escape. It looks for quick relief like scrolling, snacking, or busywork.

You might even start believing that you’re just not good at time management. But really, you’ve been trying to manage time without understanding how your brain operates.

A list can’t organize your workload into something doable. It only reminds you of everything that needs your attention.

Accountants need a system that helps them take action, not just collect tasks. They need something that works with the brain instead of against it.

And that’s where things finally begin to get easier. So let’s talk about what actually helps your brain follow through.

What Your Brain Needs to Actually Follow Through

Your brain needs tasks that feel clear and doable. When the next step is obvious, the brain moves faster and with less resistance.

It also needs decisions made ahead of time. If you wait until the moment to decide, your brain will choose whatever feels easier.

Your brain works best when it knows exactly when something is happening. A task that has a time and place gets done far more often than a task just sitting on a list.

It needs constraints like a meeting. When your brain knows there’s a start and an end, it stays focused instead of stalling.

Your brain likes closure and quick wins. Small, specific tasks help you feel progress instead of pressure.

It also needs to reduce the number of choices you have to make. Too many options can stop you before you even start.

Your brain needs context, not vague ideas. When you write what you’ll do and where you’ll do it, everything becomes easier.

It thrives when big projects are broken into tiny micro-steps. The smaller the step, the less hesitation your brain will have.

Your brain needs reminders built into your day. Otherwise, tasks just float around in mental space waiting to be forgotten.

Most importantly, your brain needs to feel capable instead of overwhelmed. When your system supports you, follow-through feels natural instead of stressful.

There is a smarter way to support the brain you have. And accountants using that approach are getting more done in less time.

Now that you know what your brain needs, let’s look at how it can all start working for you instead of against you.

Becoming a Smarter Accountant: Conquering The To-Do List

I once worked with a client who had more than 300 tasks scattered across notes, apps, and emails. She kept rewriting the same things week after week and felt like she was always behind.

Every time she looked at her tasks, her brain froze. The list felt like a giant reminder of what she wasn’t doing.

She believed she had a discipline problem. She told me she needed more motivation, more willpower, and more time.

But when we worked together, something different showed up. The issue wasn’t her productivity — it was that her brain had no guidance.

We started breaking her tasks into very small steps. Everything had a date, a time, and a clear action she could complete.

Things that once felt impossible suddenly became doable. She knocked out tasks that had sat untouched for months.

Her confidence quickly grew. She felt productive again, not buried.

She began ending her day with a feeling of completion. She finally saw progress in the areas that mattered most.

It wasn’t because she magically became a new person. It was because her brain was finally being supported instead of overwhelmed.

This is exactly why The Smarter Accountant Time Management Program works. It’s built for the way the accountant brain naturally functions.

When your system starts helping your brain instead of fighting it, everything changes. And now that you’ve seen what’s possible, let’s bring everything together in a way that makes it easier to do this yourself.

Key Takeaway and Action Item

Your to-do list doesn’t get done because it asks your brain to do too much guessing. Without clarity and timing, your mind defaults to what feels easier instead of what matters most.

There is nothing wrong with you if tasks keep rolling over. You’ve simply been using a system that doesn’t support how your brain works.

Your brain needs smaller steps, clear decisions, and action scheduled in time. When it has those things, follow-through becomes a lot more natural.

You don’t need more motivation or discipline. You need a different way of planning that gives your brain direction instead of pressure.

And the moment you start working with your brain instead of against it, everything feels lighter. Progress finally becomes consistent, not accidental.

Here’s a question you can ask yourself this week: “What is the next tiny step I can take on this task?”

This question helps your brain shift out of overwhelm and into action. Instead of facing a big, vague task, your brain sees something easy and doable — which is exactly what creates momentum.

When something feels easy, your brain relaxes and says, “Oh… I can do that.” And once you take one tiny step, the next step always becomes clearer.

Pulling Back the Curtain

Pulling back the curtain…

I used to believe that if I wrote everything down, I would finally feel organized and calm. Instead, I often ended the day staring at a list that made me feel behind.

I remember rewriting the same tasks over and over again. Each time I rewrote them, I felt a little more frustrated with myself.

I thought the problem was me. I thought I wasn’t disciplined enough or motivated enough to handle everything.

But once I learned how to support my brain instead of demanding perfection from it, my days completely changed. I finally felt like I was leading my workload instead of reacting to it.

I stopped relying on long lists and started making decisions ahead of time. Just that one shift made everything feel more doable.

My productivity didn’t improve because I suddenly worked harder. It improved because my brain finally had a plan it could follow.

That’s exactly what I teach accountants inside The Smarter Accountant Time Management Program. It’s designed to get everything out of your head and turned into real, doable actions.

No more spinning. No more carrying unfinished tasks from one week to the next.

You deserve to feel like you’re actually getting somewhere. You deserve days that end with a sense of completion instead of stress.

If your to-do list has been running the show, now is the perfect time to take back control. Let me show you a way that truly works for the brain you have.

You can take The Smarter Accountant Quiz anytime at thesmarteraccountant.com. And if you’re ready to get real support, you can schedule a free 30-minute call with me at thesmarteraccountant.com/calendar.

Your work matters. Your brain matters too.

If this episode helped you, please share it with another accountant you care about. The more accountants who learn how their brain actually works, the better this profession becomes for all of us.

As I end each episode, the truth is that you’re already smart.  But this podcast, I promise, will show you how to be smarter.

Before we get started, I want to remind you about something new I’m doing here on the podcast.  Every Monday, I release an additional short episode called Smarter in 5 Minutes.

And it’s exactly what it sounds like—five minutes, one focused idea, and something practical you can think about right away.

No long explanations.  No extra steps.  No homework. Just a quick reset for your brain before the week really gets going.

These episodes are for those moments when you know something feels off—maybe you’re already feeling behind, distracted, or mentally scattered—and you don’t have time to figure out why.

Smarter in 5 Minutes is designed to meet you right there.

If you haven’t listened yet, make sure you check them out wherever you listen to podcasts like on Spotify, Apple Music or now on YouTube or subscribe on those platforms so it shows up in your feed every Monday morning.

Think of it as a small but powerful way to start your week a little smarter—and a little lighter.

Alright, let’s get into today’s episode…..

Have you ever noticed how the same frustrating behaviors show up again and again at work? The boss who thinks everything is urgent, the coworker who tells long stories in every meeting, or the person who somehow takes credit for things they didn’t even do. It can feel like you’re stuck in a loop that you didn’t ask to be in.

You walk in hoping for a good day, and then a tiny thing happens that sends your brain into a tailspin. One comment, one email, one eye roll, and suddenly you can feel your body tense up.

It’s like your brain says, “Here we go again.” And even though you tell yourself you won’t let it get to you, it still does.

Years ago, I came across something from inspirational teacher, Martha Beck, called Dysfunctional Family Bingo. She came up with this clever and fun idea that helps you take the sting out of irritating family moments. 

The basic premise is that you make a Bingo sheet filled with all those predictable behaviors that drive you crazy. Then, instead of getting upset when they happen, you get to mark them off, with the goal of getting Bingo. 

I used this idea during a holiday gathering once, and I’ll share the full story later. But let’s just say it turned a normally stressful event into the best Christmas ever.

The great thing is—you can apply the same idea at work. Because work is full of the exact same patterns. 

Things happen the same way, over and over again. It’s almost like there’s a script that everyone else can see but you. And when people stick to that script, your brain reacts fast.

Basically, that’s your Toddler Brain jumping in. It’s the part of your brain that wants everyone to behave. It wants fairness. It wants order. It wants people to do the right thing. 

And when they don’t, it throws its hands in the air and gets upset. It says, “Why do they always do this?” or “I can’t deal with this today.”

Your Toddler Brain means well, but it reacts without thinking. It gets overwhelmed fast. 

It makes work feel heavier than it needs to feel. And honestly, it’s exhausting trying to manage a job and everyone else’s behavior at the same time.

But there’s another part of your brain—a calmer, wiser part—that can take over instead, the Supervising Parent. That part can look at all these repeat behaviors and think, “Oh, there it is again.” No surprise. No drama. Just awareness.

When you let that calmer part take the lead, work feels lighter. You spend less time reacting and more time breathing. You start to laugh at the patterns instead of being bothered by them.

And that’s where this idea of Dysfunctional Work/Office Bingo comes in. A simple little shift that can help you take your power back and make your day feel so much easier. Not by changing the people around you, but by changing how you see what they do.

Why Work Can Feel So Frustrating

Workplace dysfunction shows up in the same ways again and again. You notice the same behavior from the same people, and after a while, it becomes completely predictable. Yet each time it happens, it still finds a way to get under your skin and throw off your mood.

Most people respond with stress, irritation, or by trying to avoid the people who set them off. We complain about them, we replay the moment in our heads, or we let it ruin time we should be enjoying. It can almost feel like these people are taking up space in our brain that should be used for something better.

The real issue isn’t the behavior itself. The real issue is that we still expect something different.

In other words, we assume people will suddenly act nicer or kinder or more thoughtful. Then we feel shocked or disappointed when they… don’t. We take it all very personally, even when the behavior has nothing to do with us.

When we let someone else’s behavior decide how we feel, we hand over our energy. We get emotionally tired faster, and our brain has less power left for what really matters. It’s not the tasks draining us — it’s the emotions around the tasks.

But what if you didn’t get caught in that reaction loop? What if you could notice the behavior without the extra stress? That small shift can change how you feel.

Now let’s talk about how these repeated behaviors affect not just you, but the entire team around you.

How Workplace Dysfunction Hurts Your Workday

When dysfunction becomes normal in the workplace, everyone feels the impact. People stop questioning whether things could be calmer or better. They spend more time dealing with behavior problems than doing the work that matters most.

Instead of staying focused, so much time is lost reacting to others. One person’s tone or habits can slow everything down. Even a small interruption can force your brain to work harder to get back on track, which drains your energy long before the day is over.

The stress builds because you keep hoping something will change. You wonder if maybe today will be different. But then the same patterns show up again, and your brain says, “Seriously? This again?” That constant surprise and irritation wears you out.

It becomes a heavy way to work. You’re always bracing yourself, waiting for the next thing that will test your patience. And the worst part is feeling like you can’t do anything about it.

But you can take some of that power back. When you notice the pattern and stop letting it surprise you, you feel more in control. Even if the dysfunction stays the same, your experience doesn’t have to.

Now let’s talk about how seeing these behaviors as part of a “game” can help you stay calmer and more focused.

Common Office Behaviors That Belong on the Bingo Card

Here’s where things get interesting. If the same behaviors keep showing up at work, you can call them what they truly are: patterns you can expect. And when you expect something, you take away the surprise. When you take away the surprise, you take away a lot of the stress.

So instead of wishing these behaviors would stop, you can start naming them. That’s where the Bingo idea comes in. When you spot a behavior that always shows up, you can mentally or physically mark a square. You’re not annoyed — you’re just noticing.

Start by thinking about the characters you work with every day. You might already be picturing them as you read this. For example, maybe you have:

• The Martyr – always talking about how late they worked and how much they suffer
  
• The Drama Starter – loves gossip and stirs up problems where there aren’t any
  
• The Credit Taker – says “I did that” even when they barely helped
  
• The Meeting Hog – talks the longest, even when they have the least to say
  
• The Fire Drill Boss – everything is an emergency, all the time
  
• The Ghost – they’re on every project but nowhere to be found when needed
  
• The Over-Emailer – hits “reply all” for no reason and sends way too many messages
  
• The Perfectionist – slows everyone down because nothing is ever good enough
  
• The Hero – swoops in to save the day, often after creating the problem
  

If you’re thinking, “Oh yes, I know exactly who that is,” then congratulations — you’ve already started building your Bingo card. You’re spotting the behaviors without letting them get under your skin.

And if you want to make this even more fun, grab someone at work you really trust and play together.  It could be a coworker, a teammate, or even a work friend you text during the day.

You each create your own card and see who gets Bingo first.  Suddenly, the same behavior that used to frustrate you becomes a tiny win.

It’s your private inside joke, while everyone else around you is taking things way too seriously.

When you see these patterns as predictable squares on a board, they lose some of their power. You stop feeling surprised and start feeling amused.

Now that we’ve identified some of the common squares, let’s look at why turning dysfunction into a “game” can make such a huge difference for your stress and sanity at work.

How Your Brain Helps You Handle Work Drama

Your brain loves patterns. It feels safer when it knows what to expect. So when you begin to notice that the same behaviors repeat at work, something powerful happens. You stop taking those moments as personal attacks, and you start seeing them as predictable.

Instead of thinking, “Why is this happening to me?” you shift to, “Oh, there it is again.” That shift gives your brain a moment to pause before reacting. It helps your body relax instead of jumping into stress mode right away.

This is when you move from your Toddler Brain to your Supervising Parent Brain. Your Toddler Brain reacts fast. It gets frustrated or hurt and wants everyone to behave better. But your Supervising Parent Brain is calmer and wiser. It notices what’s happening and stays steady.

When you look at the dysfunction like it’s a square on a Bingo card, your brain sees it as a simple pattern. The best part is that humor interrupts the stress cycle. You smile instead of feeling angry. You mentally or physically check a box instead of letting the moment control your whole day.

Here’s the thing – nothing about the office has changed, but suddenly everything feels easier. Your energy stays with you instead of being drained away. You stay focused on what matters most. You’re not stuck in the drama — you’re in charge of how you respond.

And now that you understand the brain shift that makes this work so well, let’s bring it to life with a real example of how this simple change can help someone feel better at work right away.

Becoming a Smarter Accountant: When One Client Finally Saw The Pattern

I once worked with a client who had a coworker that drove her up the wall. This person loved to stir things up. Every tiny issue became a big dramatic story that everyone had to hear about.

My client found herself getting wrapped up in the drama without meaning to. She’d leave work exhausted, even when she didn’t have a heavy workload. It wasn’t the job wearing her out — it was the person.

Once we talked about predictable behavior and the idea of seeing patterns, something clicked for her. She said, “Oh wow… this is just what she does. It’s almost like she can’t help it.”

From that moment on, whenever the drama started up again, she didn’t get pulled in. She didn’t feed the story. She didn’t keep hoping it would be different. She mentally checked the “Drama Starter” box and moved on with her day.

She told me she felt calmer and more focused. She had more energy left at the end of the day. And the best part was that her coworker didn’t change at all — but her experience did.

That’s the power of noticing the pattern instead of reacting to the person. And it works no matter who you’re dealing with.

Now let’s bring it all together before I share a personal story that inspired this whole idea.

Key Takeaway and Action Item

Workplace dysfunction isn’t going anywhere. People are going to keep being who they are. Patterns will keep repeating. But you don’t have to let those patterns take over your day or your mood.

When you notice the behavior without letting your Toddler Brain jump in, everything feels lighter. Turning it into a little game you play with yourself makes it less personal and a lot less stressful. You stop being pulled into the drama and start feeling more grounded and calm.

Here’s one simple question to ask yourself the next time something frustrating happens at work:

“Is this a square on my Bingo card?”

This question matters because it gives your brain a pause. It helps you shift from reacting to observing. Instead of being upset, you can recognize the familiar pattern and mentally check it off. That pause gives you power.

Asking yourself this question takes the weight off the moment and keeps your energy focused where it belongs. It’s a small change with a big impact on how you feel during your workday.

And now that you understand how this works, I want to share a personal story that inspired me to bring this idea into the workplace.

Pulling Back the Curtain

Pulling back the curtain…

As I said before, Martha Beck is the one who came up with the idea of Dysfunctional Family Bingo, and it really inspired me to try it myself years ago. I was tired of leaving my in-law family gatherings feeling tense and upset, so I figured, why not try something different? If nothing else, I thought it might make me laugh.

So my ex-husband and I sat down and made our own Bingo sheets. We wrote out all the usual behaviors that we could count on seeing every single year. The comments, the habits, the eye rolls, the same old stories — all the things that normally drove us crazy.

Then came the fun part. Every time one of those behaviors happened, instead of getting annoyed, we looked at each other and secretly marked it off our sheet. 

It was like we had a secret game no one else knew about. We weren’t mad. We weren’t tense. We were actually waiting for the next thing to happen.

We went into that gathering bracing for irritation. But we left laughing. We were amused. We were lighter. It completely shifted the energy of the day. And honestly, it turned into the best Christmas we ever had with his family.

The thing is, nothing about the family changed. They were exactly who they always were. The only thing that changed was how we saw it.

And that’s the whole point of this. You can’t always change what other people do at work. You can’t control the dramas, the habits, or the personalities that show up. But you can change whether you let those patterns run your day.

You get to decide if you’re going to get stressed and drained — or if you’re going to smile, take a deep breath, and think or whisper, “Bingo.”

If you’re ready to handle the dysfunction better at work, take The Smarter Accountant Quiz at www.thesmarteraccountant.com and schedule a free 30-minute call at www.thesmarteraccountant.com/calendar.

And if this episode helped you, please send it to another accountant who could use it too.  You could even play together like my ex-husband and I did.  You never know how you might be helping another accountant deal with the dysfunction in the office.

As as I end each episode, the truth is that you’re already smart.  But this podcast, I promise, will show you how to be smarter.

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.

Before I get started, just a quick heads-up about the Monthly Group Coaching Program for accountants that meets every month. We meet on the third Friday of every month at 12 pm EST, and it’s a great space to get support, grow, and connect with others who get what you’re going through. 

In January, we’re turning our attention forward—but not with pressure or unrealistic resolutions. We’re going to talk about setting meaningful goals that actually matter to you—goals that are grounded in your values, your energy, and your season of life.

Goal setting isn’t just about deciding what you want to accomplish — it’s about getting clear on why it matters to you, identifying what might stand in your way, and deciding how you’ll follow through when things get tough.

Besides the group session, I also provide a workbook that will walk you through a simple, 5-step goal-setting process that helps you create a meaningful goal and make a realistic plan to achieve it — without relying on willpower or motivation alone.

I’d love to see you start off this New Year on the right foot so if you’re interested in joining us, simply email at dawn@thesmarteraccountant.com and I’ll send you the details.

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

You wake up, go to work, do your thing, come home, and then do it all again. At some point you think, “Wait… I don’t even like this. Why am I still doing it?”

I’ve been there. Most accountants have.

Sometimes it feels like life is just happening on its own. You look up and think, “Did I choose this… or did it just happen?”

For example, maybe you keep saying yes at work even when you’re already stretched thin. You don’t like it, but it’s what you’ve always done.

Or maybe you stay in a job or task that drains you. But it feels familiar, so you stick with it.

It’s okay if you’ve felt that. Nothing is wrong with you.

A lot of us think we make choices because they’re the “right” ones. But honestly, the truth is that most of the time we just choose what feels familiar.

Why?  Because familiar feels safe. Even when it’s not actually helping us.

It’s like an old pair of shoes. Maybe they don’t fit anymore, but your foot still slips into them out of habit. You know them. They don’t surprise you.

I just got a brand new pair of slippers for Christmas but I found myself automatically putting on the old ones even though they’re completely beat up.  I was just laughing about that the other day.

Well, the thing is, life works the same way. We go back to what we know, even if we want things to change.

Trying something new can feel big and weird. Even if it might make life better, it still feels… uncertain.

And uncertainty can feel scary. It’s like stepping out on a wobbly bridge. You can feel the pull to turn around.

So your mind says, “Let’s go back to what we know.” And boom — you’re doing the same thing again.

That doesn’t mean you’re weak. It doesn’t mean you’ve failed.

It’s just how the mind works. It likes what feels sure.

Even if “sure” is stressful. Even if “sure” isn’t fun.

For example, maybe you’ve said, “Next week I’ll change this.” Then next week shows up, and… nothing happens.

I’ve done that more times than I can count. And I used to be so hard on myself for it.

You might even think you’re not strong enough or ready. But that’s not true.

You’re just used to the way things have been. It’s the same path your mind has walked for a long time.

The interesting thing is that your brain thinks it’s helping you. It sees the old way as safe, simply because it knows it.

But that can make life feel stuck. You feel the pull toward something better, yet you stay where you are.

The truth is that it’s confusing to want change and still repeat the same patterns. It can be frustrating, and honestly, a little lonely.

But please hear this: nothing is wrong with you. You’re not broken.

Your mind is doing what minds do. It’s trying to protect you.

And here’s the interesting thing — once you understand what’s going on, everything starts to feel lighter. You stop fighting with yourself so much.

Have you ever felt like part of you wants something new, but the other part just wants to keep things the same? Yeah… that’s being human.

There’s a gentle way to handle that. A way that doesn’t beat you up, but helps you see what’s really going on inside.

That’s what we’re going to talk about today.

Why Familiar Feels “Right” (Even When It’s Not)

Here’s the problem in a nutshell: your brain cares more about feeling certain than feeling better. It wants to know what’s going to happen, even if what’s going to happen isn’t that great.

Because of that, familiar often gets labeled as “safe.” It doesn’t matter if the familiar thing is stressful, messy, or slowing you down. If your brain knows it, your brain trusts it.

Think about how often this shows up at work. Maybe you still follow an old process because the team has “always done it this way.” Even if it takes twice as long as it should, it feels easier to keep doing it than to try something new.

Or maybe you’ve stayed in a job you’ve already outgrown. You might tell yourself you don’t have time to look for something better or that now isn’t the right moment. But if you’re being honest, it just feels less scary to stay where you are than to step into the unknown.

This can show up with technology too. You might avoid new software or tools because learning them feels uncomfortable. You know the old way isn’t great… but it’s familiar, so it wins.

And time habits are the same story. You might keep squeezing tasks into random free moments, telling yourself it’ll all get done somehow. You’re tired of the chaos, but changing the routine feels overwhelming, so you don’t.

In all of these situations, your brain is doing the same thing. It’s mixing up “familiar” with “correct,” and it repeats the pattern without question. You end up walking the same path over and over, even when it doesn’t feel good.

The truth is that you’re not stuck because you’re doing something wrong. You’re stuck because your brain is wired to choose what it already knows.

So, now let’s talk about why this becomes such a problem—especially for accountants trying to grow and feel better at work.

Why Settling for Familiar Keeps You Stuck

This becomes a real problem because choosing familiar over better keeps you stuck, both at work and in your personal life. In other words, you miss chances to grow because it feels safer to stay where you are than to do something new.

When you keep repeating the same patterns, your skills stay the same too. That makes it harder to move forward in your career, try new roles, or even enjoy your work more. Life starts to feel smaller, even when you want more.

Over time, this gets pretty tiring. You might feel burned out because you’re stuck in a way of working that you don’t like, but changing it feels too hard. There’s this feeling of, “I hate working like this… but I don’t know how to do it differently.”

This is also where procrastination and overthinking sneak in. You might make long to-do lists or think about making changes, but never take a step. Thinking becomes easier than doing because doing feels uncertain.

It’s important to understand that it’s easy to start tolerating stress simply because it’s familiar. Stress begins to feel normal. You might not even notice it anymore because you’ve lived with it so long.

The hard part is that this comfort-with-stress makes you miss opportunities that could help you feel better. A new tool, a new role, a new boundary… all of those things could help. But stepping into something new can feel uncomfortable, so you talk yourself out of it.

Little by little, you drift into a reactive mode. Instead of choosing what you want, you respond to whatever comes at you. You tell yourself you’re picking what’s easier, but really, you’re just picking what you already know.

That’s how “easier” turns into “more of the same.” You stay in patterns not because they’re good, but because they’re familiar. And the longer you stay there, the harder it feels to break out.

Okay, now that you see why this is such a big deal, let’s look at what’s actually happening inside your brain.

What Your Brain Is Really Trying To Do

Here’s something helpful to know: your brain’s main job is to keep you alive. It cares way more about safety than progress.

To your brain, anything familiar feels safe. Anything uncertain feels risky, even if it might make your life better.

That’s why your brain would rather repeat a pattern that makes you stressed than try something new that it can’t predict. It’s not trying to hold you back — it’s trying to protect you the only way it knows how.

Inside all of us, there’s a fast, automatic part of the mind I call the Toddler Brain. It loves habits and sameness. It wants to stick with what it knows.

Then there’s the Supervising Parent Brain. This part is calmer and more thoughtful. It helps you make choices on purpose instead of reacting without thinking.

When you feel stuck, it usually means the Toddler Brain is running the show. It doesn’t like change because change feels uncomfortable. But discomfort is a normal part of growth.

Smarter Accountants start paying attention to simple questions, like: “Am I doing this because it’s helpful… or just because it’s familiar?” That tiny awareness opens the door to better choices.

The truth is that real growth lives in uncertainty. When things feel new, your brain is learning new patterns. That’s where change begins.

You can teach your brain that new doesn’t have to mean scary. You can help it feel safe while still trying new things one small step at a time.

The big shift to remember is this: familiar doesn’t always mean right. And unfamiliar doesn’t always mean wrong.

Once you understand that, you can start making choices that help you grow — not just choices that keep you where you’ve always been.

Now let’s look at a real story of how this shows up.

Becoming a Smarter Accountant: Breaking The Familiar Cycle

I once worked with a client who always felt buried at work. She wasn’t behind because she lacked skill — she was behind because she kept doing everything the same old way.

Her workflow was stressful, jam-packed, and had no breathing room. But she stuck with it because it was what she knew.

She would say things like, “I want to try a better system, but it feels like too much work to change.” She felt the same way about delegating — it sounded harder than just doing it herself.

So she kept repeating the same routine, even though it left her exhausted. Part of her knew there had to be a better way, but the familiar pattern always won.

The turning point came when she learned why she kept resisting change. When she saw that her hesitation wasn’t a personal flaw — it was her brain choosing what felt familiar — everything softened.

She stopped beating herself up. She took one small step instead of trying to change everything at once.

She started by giving one task to someone else. That was it. One task.

It felt uncomfortable at first, but she stayed with it. And slowly, things shifted.

Her stress dropped. She felt more in control. And she actually got more done.

What once seemed impossible suddenly felt doable, all because she understood her own mind better. She stopped seeing herself as the problem and started seeing the old pattern as the problem.

Now that you’ve seen how small shifts can make a big difference, let’s pull everything together.

Key Takeaway and Action Item

If you remember one thing from this episode, let it be this: your brain is not trying to hold you back — it’s trying to protect you. It chooses the familiar because familiar feels safe, even when it’s not helpful.

Once you understand that, everything feels a little easier. You can stop blaming yourself for staying in old patterns and start gently guiding your brain toward something better.

You don’t need to change everything overnight. Small steps count. What matters most is noticing when you’re choosing something just because it feels familiar.

That simple awareness opens the door to better choices.

A question to ask yourself this week is, “Am I doing this because it’s helpful… or just because it feels familiar?”

This question works because it slows everything down. It gives your Supervising Parent Brain a chance to step in and take the wheel.

When you ask this, you’re not judging yourself. You’re just getting curious. You’re giving yourself a moment to see what’s really going on.

If the answer is “just familiar,” that’s okay. It means you’ve spotted the pattern. And once you can see a pattern, you can change it — gently, one small step at a time.

This is how you start moving from automatic choices to intentional ones. And that’s when life begins to feel lighter, calmer, and more on purpose.

Next, let me share a personal story about how I can relate to this topic.

Pulling Back the Curtain

Pulling back the curtain…

I want to share a moment from my own life because I’ve been right where you are. There was a time when I stayed in a work routine that left me drained, frustrated, and feeling like I was always behind.

I knew there were better ways to do things. I knew I could try new tools, set clearer boundaries, or ask for help. But honestly? The old way felt easier — even though it wasn’t working.

It felt familiar. And familiar felt safe.

I told myself, “I’m used to this. I know how to handle it.” But deep down, I also knew I was tired of feeling stuck.

For a long time, I thought the problem was me — that I just wasn’t organized enough or strong enough to change. I thought other people had something I didn’t.

But once I learned how the brain clings to what it knows, everything clicked. It wasn’t that I couldn’t change. It was that my brain thought it was protecting me.

That shift made all the difference.  I stopped fighting myself and started taking small steps instead.

And those small steps became a turning point. Life felt lighter. I felt more in control. And slowly, things got better — not because I changed everything at once, but because I understood my mind and worked with it.

I share this because I want you to know you’re not alone. We all have moments where the familiar feels safer, even when it isn’t helping us anymore.

If this episode spoke to you, I’d love to help you go even deeper.  You can start by taking The Smarter Accountant Quiz at https://thesmarteraccountant.com/ to get insight into how your brain may be holding you back.

And if you want personal help making these shifts, you can schedule a free 30-minute call with me at https://thesmarteraccountant.com/calendar/. We’ll talk about what’s going on for you and how you can move forward in a calmer, more intentional way.

And if you know another accountant who might need this message, please share the episode with them.  Sometimes one simple share can help someone else feel less alone.

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

Before I get started I wanted to mention that this month’s CPE webinar is all about what every accountant needs to know about stress and overwhelm.

The thing is, stress and overwhelm are so common in accounting that many of us assume they’re just part of the job. Deadlines, clients, busy season, and heavy workloads often get blamed as the cause. But what if stress and overwhelm aren’t coming from your circumstances at all?

In this course, you’ll learn a brain-based understanding of stress and overwhelm that challenges what most accountants have been taught to believe. Instead of focusing on changing your workload or waiting for things to slow down, this session helps you understand what’s actually happening in your brain — and how to regain a sense of control even when work is demanding.

Plus all of my CPE courses include the video replay and workbook to apply what you learned.  The reason I go that extra step is because I believe there is too much passive learning happening in CPE webinars, but I want the accountants who take my courses to actually apply what they’ve learned.

If you’re ready to do something about stress and overwhelm, the next session will be on January 9th at 12 pm EST and you can sign up at https://thesmarteraccountant.com/cpe/

Let’s get started with this week’s episode…

Have you ever told yourself, “I know what I need to do—I’m just not doing it”? It’s one of those things that sounds so simple but feels so frustrating. 

You make a plan, you set your mind to it, and then… you don’t follow through. You tell yourself you’ll start tomorrow, but tomorrow comes and it’s the same story all over again.

If you can relate to this, it can make you wonder what’s wrong with you. You know better. You’ve read the books, made the lists, and even given yourself pep talks. But somehow, you still don’t do the thing you said you were going to do. 

For example, it could be finishing that project, cleaning up your workspace, or going to bed on time—it doesn’t matter what it is. The result is the same. You feel stuck between knowing and doing.

And if we’re being honest, that space between knowing and doing can feel really heavy. You might call it procrastination or laziness, but deep down, it feels more like confusion and frustration. 

I’m going to guess that most of you listening have thought, “If I know what to do, why can’t I just make myself do it?” It probably feels like there’s a part of you that’s all in and another part that just doesn’t care.

What makes this even harder is that you probably do want to do the thing. You want to be the kind of person who follows through. You want to feel proud of yourself at the end of the day, not guilty or disappointed. 

But wanting it doesn’t always seem to be enough. Something keeps getting in the way, and it’s easy to start thinking maybe you just don’t have what it takes.

But that’s not true at all. There’s nothing wrong with you. You’re not broken or lazy. You’re just human. And every human has a brain that sometimes pulls in two different directions. 

One part of you wants to take action and move forward, and the other part wants to stay comfortable and safe. The problem is, those two parts don’t always agree.

So instead of judging yourself for not doing what you said you would, what if you got curious about why it’s happening? What if there’s a good reason your brain resists certain things—even when you know they’re good for you?

This is something everyone deals with in different ways. Some accountants have trouble starting, others have trouble sticking with it. But underneath it all, we all share the same struggle: turning what we know into what we do.

If you’ve ever wondered why that gap feels so hard to cross, you’re not alone. Understanding what’s really happening when you know what to do but aren’t doing it can change everything. 

Because once you know what’s going on behind the scenes, it’s not about forcing yourself—it’s about working with your brain instead of against it.

Why You Don’t Do What You Know You Should

Here’s the funny thing about being human—you can know exactly what you need to do and still not do it. It’s not that you don’t care or that you’re not capable. The real problem is that there are two parts of your brain that don’t always agree on what’s important.

There’s the part of your brain that’s logical and mature. This is the part that makes lists, plans ahead, and wants the best for you. 

It’s the version of you that says, “I’m going to start getting up earlier,” or “I’ll work on that project first thing tomorrow.” That’s your higher brain—the one that knows what you should be doing.

Then there’s the other part—the one that acts like a toddler who only wants what feels good right now. This is your lower brain. 

It’s all about habits, comfort, and avoiding anything that feels hard. It doesn’t care about goals or plans—it just wants to keep you safe and cozy in the moment.

So when your higher brain says, “Let’s go for a walk,” your lower brain says, “It’s too cold—let’s just rest.” When your higher brain schedules time for an important project, your lower brain says, “Let’s scroll for a bit first.” Sound familiar?

The problem is that your lower brain usually wins because it reacts faster. In other words, it’s built for survival, not success. 

It wants to protect you from discomfort, uncertainty, or anything that might feel like a threat—even if it’s something good for you. To your lower brain, anything new or challenging feels dangerous, so it tries to pull you back to what’s safe and familiar.

That’s why you can plan, prepare, and promise yourself you’ll do something, but when it’s time to act, you suddenly lose the motivation. It’s not that you don’t want it—it’s that your lower brain is wired to avoid anything that feels uncomfortable.

The real struggle isn’t between you and your to-do list. It’s between the part of your brain that dreams big and the part that just wants to keep you safe.

Once you understand that, everything starts to make more sense. You can stop beating yourself up for not following through and start learning how to get both parts of your brain working together.  That’s the real secret.

But before we talk about how to do that, let’s look at why this inner tug-of-war causes so much frustration and self-doubt in the first place.

Why Not Following Through Feels So Frustrating

When you keep making plans but don’t follow through, it starts to wear you down. You know what you should be doing, so when you don’t do it, it’s easy to turn on yourself. 

I explain to my time management clients that not following through on what you planned really takes a toll on your self-confidence.  In other words, you begin to not trust yourself which is one of the worst things.

You might think you’re lazy, unmotivated, or just not disciplined enough. But the truth is, this isn’t a character flaw—it’s a brain issue.

That tug-of-war between your higher brain and your lower brain can leave you feeling stuck and confused. Again, your higher brain wants progress, while your lower brain wants comfort. 

When your actions don’t match your intentions, it feels like something inside you is broken. But what’s really happening is that your brain is sending mixed signals, and you’re caught in the middle.

Unfortunately, over time, as I said before, that disconnect chips away at your confidence. Each time you make a plan and don’t follow through, your brain starts to trust you a little less. 

You tell yourself you’ll do better next time, but when you don’t, it reinforces the story that you can’t count on yourself. Eventually, you stop believing your own plans.

And that hurts more than you realize. Because deep down, you want to be reliable—especially to yourself. You want to make promises and actually keep them.   You want to be a person who does what they say they’re going to do.

But when your brain keeps pulling you in two directions, it’s like trying to drive with one foot on the gas and the other on the brake. You’re trying hard but not getting anywhere.

For accountants, this can show up in very real ways. You might know that batching similar tasks together would save you time, but you don’t do it. 

You might know that setting boundaries with clients would reduce your stress, but you avoid the awkward conversation. You might even know that delegating would free up hours, but you convince yourself it’s just easier to do it yourself.

When this keeps happening, the stress piles up. You start working longer hours, feeling more overwhelmed, and wondering why it always feels so hard to change. It’s not because you don’t know what to do—it’s because your brain doesn’t yet feel safe doing it.

That’s why understanding what’s really going on in your brain is so important. Once you see what’s happening behind the scenes, you can stop blaming yourself and start working with your brain instead of against it.

So let’s look at what’s actually happening in your brain when you know what to do but can’t seem to do it—and what has to shift to finally get unstuck.

How to Get Your Brain on Board

Here’s the good news—there’s nothing wrong with your brain. It’s not broken or lazy. It’s simply doing its job: keeping you safe. But the key to actually doing what you say you’ll do is learning how to work with your brain instead of fighting against it.

There are two things that have to happen for that to work. First, you need to create enough desire to get your lower brain on board. Second, you need to break things down into steps small enough that your brain doesn’t feel threatened by them. When you do both, the part of your brain that usually resists change starts to relax, and taking action feels a lot easier.

Let’s start with desire. The lower brain sees confusion, uncertainty, and self-doubt as danger. So if something feels too big or unclear, it shuts down. 

That’s why your reasons for doing something need to be clear and meaningful. You have to give your brain a reason that feels worth the discomfort.

For example, let’s say you want to start time blocking each week. It’s not enough to tell yourself you “should” do it. Your brain won’t care about that. 

But if you remind yourself why it matters—like having more control over your day, less stress, or finally being able to leave the office on time—that creates desire. That gives your lower brain something to work toward instead of something to avoid.

The second part is breaking things down into small, doable steps. The smaller the step, the safer your brain feels. 

Your lower brain can handle five minutes of planning but not an entire day of it. It can handle one small change, like reviewing your schedule for tomorrow, but not a total overhaul of your time management.

Think of it like tricking your brain into trusting you again. When you take one small step and follow through, your brain gets a little hit of safety and success. It gets a little hit of dopamine, the feel good chemical.

It learns that doing the thing isn’t dangerous after all. Then it’s easier to take the next step, and the next, until following through starts to feel normal.

So instead of pushing yourself harder or trying to force motivation, start by building desire and breaking things down. That’s how you stop fighting your brain and start using it to your advantage.

Next, let’s talk about the most common obstacles that show up when you try to do this—and why your brain tends to fall back into old patterns even when you have the best intentions.

What’s Really Getting in Your Way

Even when you understand how your brain works, it doesn’t mean change suddenly becomes easy. There are still a few common obstacles that show up again and again—and if you don’t recognize them, they can quietly keep you stuck. 

These obstacles aren’t proof that you’re doing something wrong; in fact, they’re just signs that your lower brain is still trying to protect you.

The first obstacle is confusion. When you think, “I don’t know where to start,” your brain sees that as unsafe. Confusion feels uncertain, and your lower brain doesn’t like uncertainty—it wants clear, easy steps. So instead of taking action, it shuts down or looks for distractions. 

The truth is, you usually do know where to start, but your brain is trying to avoid the discomfort that comes with starting something new.

The second obstacle is self-doubt. Thoughts like, “What if I fail again?” or “What if this doesn’t work?” can stop you before you even begin. Your lower brain hears those thoughts as danger alarms. 

The truth is that it doesn’t know the difference between emotional risk and physical risk—it just knows something feels uncomfortable, and it wants you to stay away from it.

Another big obstacle is existing habits. We keep doing things we don’t want to do because we’re good at them. They’re comfortable. They don’t set off any danger signals. Your brain has learned that these routines are safe, even if they’re not helpful. 

That’s why it’s easier to stay in old patterns than to create new ones—it’s familiar, and familiar feels safe.

And then there’s resistance. This is the feeling that pulls you back toward comfort every time you try to grow. When the desire to stay comfortable is stronger than your desire to change, you’ll stay exactly where you are. 

It’s not because you can’t grow—it’s because your lower brain still believes staying the same is safer.

The good news is that once you see these obstacles for what they are—just normal brain reactions—you can stop fighting them. You can learn how to move past them with more compassion and less frustration.

So now that you know what’s really getting in the way, let’s look at how this plays out in real life and what it looks like when someone learns to finally bridge the gap between knowing and doing.

Becoming a Smarter Accountant: Doing What She Said She Would Do

One of my coaching clients came to me because she was completely overwhelmed. She knew she needed to delegate more at work, but every time she tried, she froze. Her higher brain had made a clear plan—she even had a list of tasks ready to hand off—but when it came time to actually do it, her lower brain panicked.

She told me, “It just feels easier to do it myself.” And honestly, that made perfect sense. Her lower brain was trying to protect her from what it saw as uncomfortable or risky. 

In her mind, delegating meant losing control, possibly disappointing someone, or dealing with mistakes. Even though she knew delegating would help her in the long run, her brain believed staying in control was the safer choice.

During our coaching sessions, we worked on creating real desire—not just the idea that she “should” delegate, but a reason that felt meaningful. When I asked what she really wanted, she said she wished she could make it home in time to have dinner with her family every night. 

That was something her brain could get behind. It wasn’t about the task anymore—it was about what delegating gave her: time, connection, and peace.

Once she linked delegating to that deeper reason, everything shifted. Her brain no longer saw delegation as a threat—it saw it as the path to something she truly cared about. 

She started small, handing off one task at a time, and each time she followed through, her brain began to trust that it was safe to let go. Within a few weeks, she was finishing work earlier and actually sitting down to dinner with her family most nights.

That’s the power of understanding how your brain works. When you connect what you need to do with why it matters, your brain stops fighting you. The resistance fades, and following through starts to feel natural instead of forced.

Next, let’s wrap this up with a quick recap to pull everything together and remind you how to start using this knowledge to finally do the things you’ve been putting off.

Key Takeaway and Action Item

So here’s the bottom line—your higher brain already knows what to do. It’s smart, logical, and focused on long-term goals. But your lower brain, the part that runs on habit and comfort, is the one that decides whether you actually follow through. To move forward, the two parts of your brain have to work together, not against each other.

You don’t need more motivation or willpower. What you really need is agreement. Your higher brain has to make the plan, and your lower brain has to believe that doing it is safe and worth it. When those two parts align, following through stops feeling like a fight.

The way to do that is simple but powerful. Create real desire by connecting what you want to something that deeply matters to you. Don’t focus on the task itself—focus on what it gives you. 

Then, break it down into steps so small that your brain feels calm and capable, not overwhelmed or threatened. That’s how you begin to rebuild trust with yourself.

Here’s a question you can ask yourself whenever you feel stuck:  “Why do I want to do this—really?”

Take a minute to think about your answer. Go beyond the surface reason. Don’t say, “Because I should” or “Because it’s the right thing.” 

Find the deeper reason that actually feels good—maybe it’s peace, freedom, confidence, or time with the people you love. When your reason feels meaningful, your brain will stop resisting and start cooperating.

Remember, knowing what to do has never been the problem. The real progress happens when your brain believes it’s safe—and worth it—to take action.

Next, let me share a personal story about how I learned this lesson the hard way and what changed once I finally stopped fighting my brain and started working with it.

Pulling Back the Curtain

Pulling back the curtain…

I remember a time when I used to plan out my entire week perfectly. Every hour was color-coded, every task had a time block, and I’d tell myself, “This is it—this week I’m finally going to follow through.” And then… life would happen.

A client would call with an urgent question, or I’d get pulled into an email rabbit hole, and before I knew it, my carefully planned schedule went right out the window. I’d feel frustrated and disappointed, telling myself I just needed more discipline or focus. I thought if I worked harder, I could finally make it stick.

But the harder I pushed, the worse it got. My lower brain would rebel even more. I’d end up ignoring the plan completely, even though I knew following it would make my life easier. 

I didn’t understand it back then, but my lower brain wasn’t being stubborn—it was scared. It saw all those back-to-back time blocks as too rigid, too demanding, too risky. It didn’t feel safe, so it resisted.

Everything changed when I finally understood how my brain worked. Instead of trying to force myself to stick to the plan, I started creating desire for what I wanted. 

I reminded myself that following my schedule wasn’t about being strict—it was about feeling calmer, more in control, and having more time for the people I love.

Once I stopped trying to fight my lower brain and started working with it, everything got easier. I stopped making it about discipline and started making it about desire. And that made all the difference.

If this resonated with you and you’re tired of knowing what to do but not doing it, it might be time to understand your brain a little better. Take The Smarter Accountant Quiz at www.thesmarteraccountant.com or schedule a free 30-minute call at www.thesmarteraccountant.com/calendar. Let’s get your brain on your side—because when it is, following through becomes a whole lot easier.

And if you know another accountant who’s constantly saying, “I know what to do, I’m just not doing it,” share this episode with them. You never know—this might be exactly what they need to hear today.

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

Before we get started I just want to read an email I sent to my subscribers this week:

We’re days away from closing out another year, and I wanted to send something a little different.

No assignments. No questions. No push to do more.

Just a moment to breathe.

If you’re like most accountants, you’ve spent this year doing what you always do — showing up for everyone who counts on you. Clients. Colleagues. Family. Friends. And somewhere in that mix, you probably gave yourself whatever time was left over.

I see you.

So before 2025 officially ends, I want to offer a thought that might feel like a relief:

You don’t have to “earn” rest.

You don’t have to prove anything to deserve a slower pace right now.

You don’t have to finish the year perfectly to begin the next one with intention.

You’re allowed to exhale.

It’s easy to look back on the year and only see what didn’t get done — the plans you didn’t execute, the habits you didn’t stick to, the goals that changed or fell off the list completely.

But that’s not the whole story.

You navigated deadlines, new challenges, messy situations, and curveballs you didn’t see coming. You made decisions when you were tired. You kept moving on days you wanted to stop. You learned more than you give yourself credit for.

That matters.

And if the year didn’t go the way you imagined?  That’s okay too.

Most of life happens in the parts we didn’t plan for.

As you look toward 2026, I’m not going to tell you to set bigger goals or “hit the ground running” the moment January arrives.

I’d actually invite the opposite.

Start small.

Start gentle.

Start with how you want to feel.

Your brain works best from a place of clarity, not pressure.

The smartest decisions come from calm, not urgency.

So ask yourself:

What’s one feeling I want to guide my year?

Not 20 priorities.

Not a color-coded spreadsheet.

Just one feeling.

That alone is enough to shift everything.

I’m incredibly grateful you’re here — whether you’ve been with me for a long time or just joined this year. Getting to walk alongside smart accountants who want more control, more peace, and more meaning… it’s a privilege I don’t take lightly.

Thank you for reading.

For thinking.

For being curious.

For wanting better for yourself.

I hope 2026 is a year where you feel supported, calmer, and more connected to what matters most.

And if you ever feel stuck, behind, or overwhelmed — remember, nothing has gone wrong. You’re human. And you’re learning.

I’m right here with you.

I want everyone listening to this podcast to hear that message as we start this new year.

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

Every time a new year starts, it can feel like the world tells us to get it all together at once. We see messages about fresh starts, big goals, and doing everything better than last year.

On the surface, that can sound exciting. But for a lot of people, it brings more pressure than joy.

You might feel like you’re supposed to hit the ground running the second January begins. Almost as if the calendar changes and suddenly you should be a brand-new version of yourself.

That pressure can feel heavy. Instead of feeling hopeful about the year ahead, you might notice your chest tighten or your mind start racing.

It’s easy to look at the whole year and feel like there’s too much to figure out. Work deadlines, family needs, personal goals—it can all pile up in your head before the year even gets going.

And the funny thing is, nothing actually changes between December 31st and January 1st. But the way we think about it changes everything.

For some people, January feels like a giant spotlight shining on all the things they want to do or all the ways they wish life was different. That can stir up a lot of self-doubt and worry.

If you’ve ever told yourself, “This year has to be different,” you know how much pressure those words can bring. It’s like setting yourself up for a race before you’ve even stretched.

The truth is, New Year anxiety is more common than most people admit. It’s not talked about much because everyone else seems busy making resolutions and showing off their plans.

But behind the scenes, a lot of us are asking the same questions. What if I can’t keep up? What if I start the year already behind?

That mix of excitement and fear can make January feel like both a beginning and a burden. It’s like you want to look forward, but your mind keeps pulling you back to stress and worry.

If you’ve ever felt a knot in your stomach when the year turns, you’re not alone. You might not even call it anxiety, but you can feel the weight of it.

The good news is, it doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with you. It just means you’re human.

And maybe this year, instead of rushing into pressure, you get to look at it in a new way.

So, let me ask you—what if a new year didn’t have to feel so heavy? What if you could step into it with calm instead of anxiety?

Let’s dive in.

What Is New Year Anxiety and Why Does It Happen?

New Year anxiety is that uneasy feeling that often shows up when the calendar flips to January. It’s the stress, worry, or pressure that comes from believing you need to have everything figured out right away, simply because it’s a new year.

For accountants, this can feel even heavier than for most people. You may find yourself overthinking what the year will look like, running through possible scenarios in your mind before January even gets rolling. Maybe you’re lying awake at night wondering how you’ll juggle client work, deadlines, and your personal goals all at once.

There’s also the pressure to set big goals and resolutions. Everywhere you look, people are talking about new habits, bigger plans, or making this year “the best one yet.” 

It can feel like if you don’t create a massive list of resolutions, you’re already behind. Imagine seeing coworkers talking about their big gym plans, or scrolling through social media where everyone seems to have a “word of the year.” That can make you feel like you should be doing more, even if you’re already stretched thin.

On top of that, you might carry the fear of repeating mistakes from last year. Maybe you promised yourself that you’d manage your time better during tax season, but ended up pulling late nights anyway. 

Or maybe you wanted to set stronger boundaries with clients, but found yourself answering emails at all hours. Instead of seeing January as a clean slate, your brain reminds you of all the times things didn’t go as planned, making you doubt whether this year will be any different.

And then, of course, there’s the looming thought of busy season right around the corner. Even if you’re still in the calm of early January, you know what’s coming—the long days, the endless emails, the pressure that never seems to stop. It hasn’t even started yet, but just the thought of it can make your stomach tighten.

When all of these thoughts swirl together, it’s no wonder that what should feel like a fresh start can instead feel like a heavy weight pressing down. You want to feel hopeful, but the stress of what might happen steals the joy of what could happen.

So why does this matter, and what’s really happening beneath the surface when New Year anxiety shows up? Let’s take a closer look.

Why New Year Anxiety Can Hold You Back

The problem with New Year anxiety is that it keeps your brain stuck in survival mode. In this state, your nervous system is on high alert, and your brain is focused on scanning for danger instead of helping you think clearly. That’s why it feels so hard to make good decisions when you’re anxious—you’re wired to react, not to plan.

When your brain is caught in that loop, progress feels almost impossible. Anxiety doesn’t usually push people forward; it tends to freeze them in place. 

You might tell yourself, “I’ll figure this out tomorrow,” but tomorrow comes and the weight of the worry is still there. For example, instead of sitting down to block out time for upcoming client work, you spend the day spinning in stress and end up avoiding the task altogether.

That’s how procrastination sneaks in. You know what needs to get done, but the pressure of “getting it perfect” makes starting feel overwhelming. 

Think of the accountant who tells themselves, “This year I’ll be more organized,” but spends hours scrolling through new apps or planners without actually setting up a single system. The anxiety turns into delay, and delay turns into guilt.

New Year anxiety also stirs up self-doubt. Rather than feeling confident about what’s possible, you begin questioning yourself. 

Maybe you planned to raise your rates this year, but your anxious brain whispers, “What if I lose clients?” Or maybe you want to finally protect your evenings, but you’re flooded with thoughts like, “What if people think I’m not committed enough?” These kinds of thoughts leave you second-guessing instead of moving forward.

The hardest part is how easily this anxiety can set the tone for the entire year. When January begins with stress and overwhelm, it can feel like you’re already behind before you’ve even started. 

It’s like lining up for a marathon but carrying a backpack full of bricks. You haven’t even taken your first step, yet you feel weighed down.

If you’ve ever started the year telling yourself, “I should be further along by now,” you know how draining this cycle can be. That early pressure can make the months ahead feel like an uphill climb instead of an opportunity.

But there’s good news—there’s a clear reason why this happens, and it’s not because you’re weak or unmotivated. The answer has everything to do with how your brain works when it feels pressure. So let’s take a closer look at what’s really going on inside your brain when New Year anxiety takes over.

The Brain Science Behind New Year Anxiety

When it comes to the new year, your brain sees it as both exciting and a little threatening. On one hand, a fresh start feels full of possibility. On the other hand, it’s unknown—and the unknown often sets off alarm bells in your brain. 

That push and pull is what creates the mixed emotions so many people feel in January.

Your primitive brain, what I often call the “Toddler Brain,” is wired to look for safety and certainty. Its job is to protect you, so it doesn’t like change or uncertainty. 

Anything new, even something as harmless as a date on a calendar, can feel risky to that part of your brain. This is why even a positive milestone, like the beginning of a new year, can stir up worry, pressure, or even dread.

Think about it: the Toddler Brain would rather you do what you did last year—even if it left you stressed—because it feels familiar and therefore safer. That’s why you might feel pulled back into old habits as soon as January starts, even when you had the best intentions to do things differently.

Thankfully, you also have another part of your brain—your “Supervising Parent Brain,” or prefrontal cortex. This part is built for long-term thinking, planning, and creating calm. 

It’s the rational voice that reminds you that you don’t need to figure everything out at once. It allows you to zoom out and see that you can take things one step at a time instead of panicking about the whole year at once.

The problem is, when anxiety is high, the Toddler Brain gets louder. It shouts things like, “You have to figure everything out now!” or “If you don’t make a huge plan, you’ll fail.” And when you believe those thoughts, the result is stress, tension, and feeling stuck. 

For example, you might sit down to plan your schedule but instead spiral into thoughts about every deadline from now until April, leaving you too overwhelmed to even begin.

This is why remembering that thoughts create feelings is so important. Thinking “I’m already behind” fuels anxiety, while thinking “I can handle one thing at a time” creates calm and control. The same situation—the start of a new year—can feel heavy or hopeful depending on the story your brain tells about it.

When you understand this, you start to see that the key isn’t to control the new year itself—it’s to manage how your brain reacts to it. And that’s exactly what makes the difference between starting the year weighed down by anxiety or starting it with clarity and confidence.

So what does this actually look like in real life? Let me share a story from a coaching client who faced this very thing and learned how to quiet the Toddler Brain and lean on their Supervising Parent Brain instead.

Becoming a Smarter Accountant: Overcoming New Year Anxiety

One of my clients used to feel anxious every January. He would sit down at the start of the year and make a long list of big, ambitious goals—working out every day, keeping his desk perfectly organized, and somehow getting ahead of busy season before it even started. On paper, it looked like he was driven. But inside, he felt pressure and dread the moment he wrote it all down.

By the second week of January, the list was already falling apart. He had missed a few workouts, the piles on his desk were still there, and he hadn’t done half of what he had expected of himself. That gap between his plans and reality made him feel like he was already failing.

As busy season started to creep closer, his anxiety grew stronger. He kept telling himself, “If I can’t keep up with my goals now, there’s no way I’ll handle what’s coming.” That single thought left him feeling defeated before the year had even begun. Instead of feeling refreshed, January always felt heavy and discouraging.

When we worked together, he began to see that the stress wasn’t coming from the calendar—it was coming from his thoughts about the calendar. His Toddler Brain was yelling, “You have to figure everything out right now or you’ll fall behind.” 

Once he learned to notice that, he could step into his Supervising Parent Brain and choose a more useful thought like, “I can take this one step at a time.”

That simple reframe changed everything. Instead of making an overwhelming list of goals, he started small by focusing on one area—blocking out time for client work before tax season hit. 

He didn’t need to have his entire year solved in January. He just needed to decide on the next right step.

When busy season arrived, he felt more calm and in control than he ever had before. He wasn’t chasing impossible expectations anymore—he was steady and clear. And for the first time in years, he started the year without the weight of anxiety.

This story shows that New Year anxiety doesn’t have to control how your year begins. And once you understand the role your brain is playing, you can create a very different experience for yourself too.

So let’s pause for a moment and pull the main ideas together before wrapping up.

Key Takeaway and Action Item

New Year anxiety is something a lot of people feel, and it’s especially common for accountants. The start of the year can bring pressure, big expectations, and the weight of busy season right around the corner.

But it’s important to remember—your anxiety isn’t caused by the calendar. A date on a page doesn’t have that kind of power. What creates the stress are the thoughts you have about what the new year should mean.

The good news is, once you understand how your brain works, you can manage those thoughts in a smarter way. When you let the Toddler Brain take over, you start the year anxious and overwhelmed. But when you step into your Supervising Parent Brain, you can choose thoughts that create calm and confidence instead.

And that difference—managing your brain rather than being managed by it—sets the tone for the entire year.

One powerful question you can ask yourself is: “What am I telling myself about the new year that’s making me feel this way?” 

That question helps you pause and see that it’s not the year itself creating the stress—it’s the story your brain is telling. Once you see the story, you can choose a different one that feels calmer and more helpful.

Now let me pull back the curtain and share a personal story of how I’ve faced this myself.

Pulling Back the Curtain

Pulling back the curtain…

I’ll be honest—January used to feel overwhelming for me too. Every year, I would tell myself that this was the year I was going to get everything right. 

I’d set big expectations, and I felt this pressure to make the year “better than last.” But instead of feeling inspired, I usually felt weighed down. By the middle of January, I was already exhausted from trying to live up to the plans I had set.

In public accounting, this was especially tough. I would look ahead and see busy season coming fast, and I’d tell myself I had to be completely ready for it. 

I thought I needed to be perfectly organized, have all my personal goals lined up, and still keep up with every client request. It was like starting the year with a mountain sitting right in front of me.

I remember one January in particular when I had filled an entire planner with color-coded goals, deadlines, and resolutions. It looked so good on paper. 

But two weeks later, half the boxes were already unchecked, and I felt defeated. I sat at my desk thinking, “If I can’t even stick to this plan in January, how will I survive March and April?” Instead of giving me energy, all those lists made me feel like I was already behind.

The problem was, I believed the thought that I had to do it all—and do it perfectly—right away. That thought created anxiety before I even had a chance to get moving. It turned January into a test I felt like I was failing.

What changed everything for me was learning how to manage my brain. Once I realized that it wasn’t the calendar creating my stress—it was my thoughts about the calendar—I started approaching things differently. The pressure I felt wasn’t inevitable. It was optional.

Now, my January looks very different. Instead of long lists and impossible expectations, I give myself permission to focus on the next step. I remind myself that I don’t need to have the entire year figured out on January 1st. 

I don’t need to know exactly how everything will unfold. What I need is calm, clarity, and a willingness to take things one step at a time. That shift has made the start of each year feel lighter and more manageable.

If you find yourself feeling that same weight of New Year anxiety, I want to help. Start by taking The Smarter Accountant Quiz at www.thesmarteraccountant.com. It will help you uncover what’s really fueling your stress and give you clarity about how to move forward.

And if you’re ready to take it a step further, you can also schedule a free 30-minute call with me at www.thesmarteraccountant.com/calendar. It’s a chance to talk through your specific challenges and get support tailored to you.

If this episode resonated with you, please share it with other accountants who might also feel that New Year anxiety creeping in. You never know who needs the reminder that they’re not alone—and that there’s a smarter, calmer way to start the year.

Remember, the year doesn’t get to decide how you feel—you do. And when you learn how to manage your brain, you’ll see that calm, confidence, and clarity are always available to you. That’s what being a Smarter Accountant is all about.

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

If you’re listening to this on the day it goes live, it’s Christmas Day—and I just want to start by wishing you a very happy holiday season.

Whether today is quiet or full, relaxing or a little chaotic, I hope it brings you a moment to breathe. A moment where you’re not thinking about deadlines, emails, or everything that still needs to get done. Just a moment to be present where you are.

I also know that for many accountants, this time of year can feel a little strange. Work may have slowed down, but your brain hasn’t. Or maybe you’re already thinking about what’s coming next—busy season, the new year, or all the things you want to do differently.

So if you’re listening while out for a walk, sitting with a cup of coffee, hiding in a quiet room for a few minutes, or even catching up later this week—this episode is here to meet you exactly where you are.

No pressure. No pushing. Just a conversation meant to help you think a little differently and feel a little lighter.

Let’s get into today’s episode….

The hard truth about any profession, especially accounting, is that It’s hard to watch good people leave.  I’ve seen it more times than I can count.

You know the ones I’m talking about — the employees who work hard, care about the clients, and always seem to go above and beyond. One day they’re part of the team, and the next day they’ve decided to move on.

For some firms, it feels like this keeps happening more and more. A great employee settles in, learns the ropes, becomes someone everyone depends on… and then they’re gone. And when they leave, it doesn’t just affect the firm — it affects everyone around them.

If you’ve ever been the person leaving, you know how complicated it feels. Sometimes it’s not about one big thing. 

It’s a buildup of stress, long hours, and wondering if there’s something better out there. You get tired of feeling like you’re running on empty, and eventually, you reach a point where staying feels harder than leaving.

And if you’ve ever been the person watching someone leave, that can be tough too. You see someone you respect pack up their desk, and part of you wonders if they know something you don’t. You start questioning things you hadn’t thought about before.

For firm owners and partners, it can be even more stressful. Finding great employees isn’t easy, and losing them creates ripple effects you can feel everywhere. It impacts deadlines, client relationships, and the rest of the team. And let’s be honest — it’s expensive to lose good people.

But this isn’t just a firm problem. It’s a people problem. Behind every decision to leave, there’s a person trying to manage stress, expectations, and their own well-being. Sometimes it’s not even about the job itself but about the way the job makes them feel day after day.

That’s why this conversation matters. If we want to understand why great employees leave, we have to look beyond job titles and client lists. We have to understand what’s really going on underneath the surface — for the employee, the team, and the firm.

Here’s the thing: most employees don’t start a new job planning to quit. They start hopeful. They want to succeed, grow, and feel like what they do matters. So what happens between that first day and the day they decide it’s time to walk away?

And, more importantly, what can be done to change it?

Let’s dive in.

Why Great Employees Are Walking Away

When good employees leave, it rarely happens overnight. It usually builds up little by little, day after day. What starts as small frustrations slowly turns into bigger doubts about staying.

For many accountants, it’s not about lacking skill or commitment. It’s about feeling stretched too thin. The constant deadlines, endless emails, and never-ending client demands can make even the most dedicated employees question if the pace is sustainable.

Sometimes it’s about feeling invisible. Great employees want to know their hard work matters, but when recognition is rare or support is limited, it starts to wear them down. Over time, the excitement they once had fades, and the job begins to feel like nothing more than survival mode.

And for many, it isn’t really about the work itself — it’s about the environment. You’ve probably heard the saying, “People don’t leave bad jobs; they leave bad managers.” When employees don’t feel supported, understood, or valued by leadership, even the work they once loved can become too heavy to carry.

For others, it’s about the weight of unclear expectations. They want to do a good job but feel like they’re always chasing moving targets. That constant uncertainty can be exhausting, especially when it feels like no matter how much they give, it’s never enough.

From the firm’s side, this creates a ripple effect that goes far beyond a single resignation letter. When a strong employee walks out the door, clients may feel the shift, deadlines get tighter, and the rest of the team has to pick up the slack. One person leaving often leads to more stress for everyone who stays, and that stress can lead to even more turnover.

The truth is, most employees don’t leave because they want to. They leave because they reach a breaking point where staying feels harder than leaving. And firms often don’t see the warning signs until it’s too late.

The bigger question is — why does this keep happening? Why are so many talented, capable people reaching the point where walking away feels like the only option?

To answer that, we need to look deeper at what’s really driving this pattern — for both the employees and the firms trying to keep them. That’s where we’ll go next.

The Hidden Cost of Losing Great Employees

When great employees leave, the impact runs deeper than most people realize. It’s not just about filling an open position — it’s about the emotional toll, the financial strain, and the ripple effect it creates for everyone involved.

For employees, the pressure can feel constant. Long hours, tight deadlines, and competing priorities slowly chip away at motivation. 

Over time, stress builds, burnout sets in, and they start feeling stuck in a cycle they can’t control. That exhaustion often leads to disengagement, and disengagement eventually leads to a bigger question: “Do I even want to keep doing this?”

For firms, the consequences are expensive. When an experienced accountant walks out the door, replacing them isn’t as simple as posting a job ad. 

Studies show that replacing a skilled employee can cost up to 1.5 times their annual salary once you factor in recruiting, onboarding, training, and lost productivity.

And it doesn’t stop there. When one person leaves, the workload doesn’t disappear — it gets pushed onto everyone else. 

That added pressure leads to more mistakes, missed deadlines, and a higher chance of client dissatisfaction. The rest of the team feels the strain, and for some, that extra stress becomes the very thing that makes them think about leaving too.

This is how firms unintentionally end up in a cycle of burnout and attrition. Without the right support, employees burn out, they leave, and the people who stay become more overwhelmed — which increases the chances that they’ll leave as well.

But here’s the thing: this isn’t about working harder. It’s about working smarter — for the accountants doing the work and the firms leading them. Both sides need solutions that reduce stress, improve focus, and make the work feel sustainable again.

To get there, we first have to understand what’s really happening beneath the surface. And that means taking a closer look at what’s going on in the brain when stress and overwhelm take over — and how that plays into why great employees leave. That’s what we’ll explore next.

The Brain Science Behind Why Great Employees Leave

When people reach their breaking point at work, it’s easy to assume it’s about workload or deadlines. But underneath it all, there’s something deeper going on — it starts in the brain.

When the brain is under constant stress, it shifts into survival mode. Instead of calmly thinking through problems, the brain focuses on staying safe. In accounting, that might look like shutting down when faced with deadlines, avoiding tasks that feel overwhelming, or procrastinating on work you know needs to get done.

This isn’t laziness. It’s biology. The part of the brain responsible for problem-solving and planning takes a back seat when stress levels spike. That’s why even high-performing employees can find themselves disengaged, frustrated, and quietly wondering how much longer they can keep going.

For employees, this can feel like being trapped in a loop. You wake up tired, work hard all day, and still feel behind. The longer your brain stays in survival mode, the harder it becomes to focus, make decisions, and enjoy your work. Over time, leaving starts to feel like the only way to escape the pressure.

And here’s the part most people don’t stop to consider. If you leave without learning how to manage your brain in this job, you bring that same brain with you to the next one. A new firm might change the scenery, but it won’t automatically change how your brain reacts to stress, pressure, or expectations. Without new skills, the same patterns tend to show up again — just in a different office.

This is why working with a coach before making a big decision can be so powerful. Coaching helps employees understand what’s actually driving the stress, how their thoughts are fueling burnout, and how to calm the survival response so they can think clearly again. 

Sometimes the job really isn’t the right fit — but sometimes it’s the lack of brain management skills that’s making everything feel unbearable.

For firms, this creates a huge opportunity. Employees stuck in survival mode aren’t as productive, creative, or engaged as they could be. But when firms provide support — through coaching, time management training, and teaching employees how to manage their thoughts — they give their teams the tools to feel steady and capable again.

Teaching employees how to manage their minds doesn’t just help them feel better; it helps firms keep their best people. When employees learn how to take control of their focus and energy, they get more done, make fewer mistakes, and are far less likely to burn out or quit.

That’s why understanding the brain’s role in all of this matters so much. When firms address what’s happening beneath the surface, they don’t just reduce turnover — they help people thrive.

And the best part is, I’ve seen this shift happen time and time again. Let me share the story of one accountant who was ready to walk away from her job — until she learned a smarter way to manage her brain and her workload.

Becoming a Smarter Accountant: From Overwhelmed to In Control

I worked with a senior accountant at a mid-sized firm who was ready to quit. She was smart, hardworking, and loved her clients, but she was drowning in deadlines and constant interruptions. 

Every day felt like a sprint she couldn’t finish, and she told me, “I feel like no matter how hard I work, I’m always behind.”

By the time we started working together, she had already updated her résumé and was quietly looking for another job. She wasn’t burned out because she didn’t care — she was burned out because she cared too much and didn’t see a way to make it all work.

Through our coaching sessions, she learned how her brain was reacting to stress and why it was making everything feel harder than it really was. Once she understood what was happening, we worked on simple ways to manage her thoughts, organize her time, and take control of her workload instead of letting it control her.

Within a few weeks, everything started to shift. She wasn’t working more hours, but she was getting more done. She started setting boundaries around her time, staying focused on what mattered most, and letting go of the constant guilt she’d been carrying.

Her stress dropped. Her confidence grew. And for the first time in months, she started enjoying her work again.

And here’s the best part — her firm noticed, too. Her billable hours improved, she was meeting deadlines without feeling frantic, and her clients were happier. What once felt like a problem with her turned out to be a problem with the way she was managing her brain, her energy, and her time.

Stories like hers are why I’m so passionate about this work. It’s not about fixing employees — it’s about helping them understand how their brains work so they can get out of survival mode and do their best work without burning out.

This happens every time employees are given the tools to manage their thoughts, their focus, and their time in a smarter way. And the firms that invest in helping their teams do this? They keep their best people longer, and everyone wins.

Now, let’s bring everything we’ve talked about together and recap the most important takeaways from today’s episode.

Key Takeaway and Action Item

Great employees rarely leave because they can’t handle the work — they leave because they reach a point where the stress, pressure, and lack of control feel unsustainable.

For employees, that often looks like burnout, frustration, and feeling stuck in survival mode. For firms, the impact goes beyond one person leaving — turnover creates missed deadlines, heavier workloads for the remaining team, and higher costs to replace talent.

The good news is that it doesn’t have to be this way. When accountants understand what’s happening in their brains under stress, they can learn how to manage their thoughts, energy, and time in smarter ways. 

And when firms give employees the support and tools they need, everyone benefits — employees feel better, clients are happier, and the firm keeps its best people.

Here’s a simple question to ask yourself:

“Am I creating a workday I can actually sustain?”

If your answer is no, that’s your sign something needs to change — either the way you work or the way your firm supports you.

If you’re an employee, this question can help you check in with yourself. Are you working in a way that leaves you constantly drained, or are you managing your energy, time, and focus in a smarter way? 

If your days feel like nonstop chaos, it’s a sign that your brain might be stuck in survival mode — and there are better tools you can use.

If you’re a firm owner or partner, this question applies to your entire team. Are your employees working in a way that’s realistic and healthy, or are they set up for burnout? Supporting your team doesn’t just improve their well-being — it protects the firm’s results and reputation, too.

When you take the time to pause and ask this question, it creates awareness — and awareness is the first step to making lasting change.

One important takeaway for firm owners—coming from a Professional Certified Coach for Accountants:  More than 75% of the accountants who come to be coached by me are on the brink of leaving their jobs, and many of them don’t know what to do next. 

Most firm owners don’t believe they fall into that category—until they do.

What I want you to hear is this: great employees want to do great work. They want to stay. But they want to do that work in an environment that supports them as people, not just as producers. 

When firms put employee needs first—especially mental load, stress, and sustainability—retention stops being a mystery.  In other words, when the bottom line is more about employee sustainability than finances, everyone wins in the long run.

Next, let’s wrap up with a personal story in Pulling Back the Curtain where I share my own experience watching great employees leave — and what I learned that completely shifted how I look at stress and retention in accounting.

Pulling Back the Curtain

Pulling back the curtain…

When I first started my career at Deloitte, I remember watching some of the most talented people I’d ever worked with decide to leave. These were smart, driven, hardworking accountants — the kind of people you thought would stay and build long careers there.

But one by one, they walked away.

Back then, I didn’t fully understand why. I assumed it was just part of the profession — long hours, constant pressure, and endless deadlines. It was easy to believe that burnout was just something you had to accept if you wanted to be successful in accounting.

But over time, I started noticing a pattern. These employees weren’t leaving because they didn’t like the work or because they couldn’t handle it. They were leaving because they felt exhausted, unsupported, and stuck in a system that expected more and more without showing them a better way to manage it.

At the time, I didn’t have the tools or language to explain what was happening. I didn’t know anything about how the brain responds to stress or why so many accountants slip into survival mode without even realizing it. I just knew something wasn’t working.

Fast forward to today, and coaching has completely changed the way I see this problem. Now I know that turnover isn’t inevitable. 

The truth is that when accountants learn how to manage their thoughts, time, and energy — and when firms give employees the right tools and support — everything shifts. Employees feel more in control, firms see better results, and everyone benefits.

This is why I do the work I do. I don’t believe you have to choose between being great at your job and feeling good about your life. You can have both — but it starts with understanding how your brain works and using that knowledge to create a smarter way to work.

If you’re an accountant listening and struggling right now, know this: you’re not broken. Your brain is simply trying to protect you, and there’s a smarter way to manage the stress of this profession.

And if you’re a firm owner or partner, this is exactly the kind of transformation that’s possible when you invest in coaching for your team. If you’d like to explore what that could look like, you can schedule a free consultation with me at thesmarteraccountant.com/calendar.

I believe that every great employee deserves to have a great career working for a great firm.

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

Before I get started I just wanted to mention that if you haven’t downloaded The Smarter Accountant’s Cheat Sheet For Better Time Management, you’re missing out.

See if you can relate to any of these typical issues: Never having enough time, things taking way longer than planned, procrastinating even when you know better, not knowing what to focus on first, never feeling done at the end of the day, getting interrupted all day long or your inbox is controlling your day.

If any of those resonate with you, I suggest downloading the cheat sheet because for each issue, I give you the Smarter Solution – what to do and why.  You can simply download the cheat sheet at https://thesmarteraccountant.com/cheat-sheet/

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

You know that feeling when another year is coming to an end, and you’re already thinking, “Next year has to be better than this one”?

I hear that from accountants all the time. You start the year with the best intentions — you’re going to be more organized, more productive, less stressed. You promise yourself you’ll have better boundaries, better balance, and maybe even a little more time for yourself.

But then January turns into March, and suddenly you’re buried under deadlines, emails, client requests, and unexpected “urgent” issues. Your plans slowly slide down the priority list because you’re too busy putting out fires. Before you know it, the year feels like a blur — and you’re left wondering where all that time went.

If that sounds familiar, you are not alone. Most accountants I work with feel like they’re running from one urgent thing to the next all year long. They start strong, but by the time tax season hits or a big client project blows up, everything they intended to do differently gets pushed aside.

Here’s the thing: it’s not that you’re not trying hard enough. You are trying. The problem is that most of us were never taught how to plan in a way that actually works with our brains instead of against them.

What I see over and over again is that accountants rely on two things: endless to-do lists and pure willpower. And neither one is enough. A long list of tasks without a real plan creates the illusion of control — but in reality, it leaves your brain overwhelmed and scattered. And willpower? Well, it’s unreliable, especially when you’re exhausted and stretched too thin.

The truth is, if you want next year to feel different, you have to plan differently. Not by cramming more into your schedule or creating unrealistic expectations, but by learning how to create clarity — for your time, your energy, and your focus.

Because here’s the secret: having an easier year isn’t about working harder. It’s about working smarter. It’s about knowing where to focus, what to let go of, and how to plan in a way that actually reduces stress instead of adding to it.

That’s what we’re talking about today — how to start setting yourself up right now so that next year doesn’t feel like this one. You really can have more control, less stress, and more space to breathe… but only if you approach planning the smarter way.

So, let’s dive in.

Why Accountants Struggle to Plan Effectively

Here’s the biggest problem I see: most accountants are planning reactively, not proactively.

And it’s not because you’re not trying — it’s because no one ever really taught you a better way. From the moment you started your career, you were thrown into a profession full of deadlines, moving parts, and constant demands on your time. 

You learned how to get the work done, but no one explained how to actually manage your brain, your energy, and your focus along the way.

So what happens? You rely on endless to-do lists and hope you’ll “figure it out as you go.” You start the week telling yourself, “If I just keep checking things off, I’ll eventually catch up.” 

But here’s the truth: that list never ends. Every time you cross off one thing, three more pop up. Instead of feeling accomplished, you feel like you’re falling further behind.

The other big problem is prioritization — or really, the lack of it. Most accountants don’t have a system for separating what actually matters from what just feels urgent because everything feels urgent. 

Unfortunately, you end up bouncing from email to email, client to client, putting out one fire after another. And at the end of the day, you’re exhausted but still wondering if you spent your time on the right things.

And when you don’t have a clear plan, your brain defaults to survival mode. It’s like your nervous system is constantly on high alert, scanning for the next “urgent” thing to tackle. 

In that state, it’s nearly impossible to think clearly, stay focused, or make strategic decisions.

Here’s what that looks like in real life:

• You’re overworking without real progress. You put in longer and longer hours but still feel behind.
  
• You’re dealing with constant stress and frustration, always reacting instead of feeling in control.
  
• You’re sliding toward burnout before the year is even halfway through, and you start telling yourself, “This is just how accounting is.”
  

But here’s the thing: it’s not you. It’s your system — or more accurately, the lack of one. If your only approach to managing your year is a growing to-do list and a hope that things will magically feel easier, you’re setting yourself up to repeat the same cycle over and over again.

And that’s exactly why the next section is so important — because we’re going to talk about why this cycle is so hard to break and what’s really happening in your brain when planning feels impossible.

Why Accountants Feel Overwhelmed Without a Clear Plan

A chaotic year doesn’t just happen because there’s too much work — it happens because your brain isn’t naturally wired to manage uncertainty well. And in accounting, there’s a lot of uncertainty.

Think about the year ahead: tax deadlines, client demands, audits, quarterly filings, unexpected emails, and last-minute requests. Even with a full calendar, there’s always something new popping up that needs your attention. 

Your brain is constantly being pulled in a dozen directions, and without a clear system, it starts treating everything as equally urgent.  That’s when overwhelm sets in.

Here’s what happens behind the scenes: when your brain doesn’t have a plan, it goes into survival mode. In that state, your nervous system is scanning for danger, interpreting every task, email, and deadline as a potential threat. 

And when your brain thinks you’re under constant pressure, it shifts energy away from your logical, problem-solving prefrontal cortex — the part of your brain that helps you prioritize and make smart decisions.

This is why it feels like you’re always working but rarely moving forward. Instead of focusing on what truly matters, you get caught up reacting to whatever’s loudest in the moment. That constant reaction mode leads to:

• Decision fatigue — the mental exhaustion from having to choose what to do next all day long
  
• Overwhelm — feeling buried under competing demands with no sense of control
  
• Diminished productivity — being busy without making real progress
  

And over time, this cycle adds up. You end the year exhausted, frustrated, and wondering why it feels like the year controlled you instead of the other way around.

The good news is this: there’s nothing wrong with you. This isn’t about working harder or having more discipline — it’s about understanding how your brain works and learning how to plan in a way that aligns with it.

And that’s exactly what we’re going to cover next — the brain science behind why traditional planning fails and how smarter accountants approach planning differently.

The Brain Science Behind Smarter Planning for Accountants

Here’s what most accountants don’t realize: your brain isn’t naturally built to keep you focused and calm — it’s built to keep you safe. And when you don’t give your brain clarity and certainty about what’s important, it defaults to chaos.

That’s why you can start your day with the best intentions, only to find yourself pulled in ten different directions by noon. Your brain is constantly scanning for what feels urgent, not necessarily what matters most. 

This is where so many accountants get stuck — and it’s not a personal failing. It’s biology.

Smarter Accountants have learned how to work with their brains, not against them. They understand a few key truths about how planning really works:

1. The Mere Urgency Effect

Your brain is wired to prioritize tasks that feel urgent — even if they’re not actually important. That’s why you might respond to every email within minutes but put off the bigger, high-impact project that would make a real difference in your workload.

Without a clear plan, urgency wins every time, and you stay stuck in reaction mode.

2. Planning = Less Stress

Most accountants think planning adds more pressure — but the opposite is true when you do it the smarter way. Intentional planning actually reduces mental load because it tells your brain what to focus on and when.

When you decide in advance how you’re spending your time, you remove hundreds of tiny daily decisions, which lowers stress and frees up mental energy.

3. Feelings Drive Follow-Through

This is where most planning methods fail: they ignore emotions. If you don’t plan for how you want to feel while working, you won’t stick to the plan.

For example, if a task requires focus but you’re feeling anxious or rushed, your brain will resist doing it. Smarter accountants decide in advance not just what they’re doing, but how they want to feel while doing it — calm, confident, focused, or determined.

The goal here isn’t to cram more into your calendar or squeeze productivity out of every second. It’s to create a plan that makes your year easier, not harder.

And I want to show you what this looks like in real life. 

What a Smarter Accountant Year Looks Like

I want you to picture what your year could look like if you stopped reacting and started planning the smarter way.

Instead of starting January with big intentions and then watching them slowly fall apart, you’d begin the year with clarity. You’d know what matters most, when you’re going to work on it, and how much time you’re giving yourself to get it done. No more guessing. No more “I’ll figure it out as I go.”

Here’s what that could look like in real life:

• You start each week with a clear plan that aligns with your deadlines, priorities, and energy levels.
  
• You know exactly what needs to happen and when, so you’re not living in constant firefighting mode.
  
• You build in white space — time to think, recharge, and handle unexpected issues — instead of cramming every minute full.
  
• You leave work some days without feeling guilty because you know the most important things are handled.
  
• You stop second-guessing yourself and constantly wondering, “Am I working on the right thing?” because you’ve already decided that in advance.
  

And maybe the biggest difference is that you feel better throughout the year. You’re less overwhelmed, less stressed, and more in control. You’re not trying to outrun your calendar anymore — you’re working with it.

This is what smarter planning does. It gives you the freedom to manage your year instead of letting your year manage you.

And the best part is, it’s not about working harder or cramming more in — it’s about creating a plan that actually works with your brain instead of against it.

In the next section, I want to share a real coaching client’s story — someone who went from constant chaos to finally feeling in control of their time and their year.

Becoming a Smarter Accountant: Turning A Typically Chaotic Year Into An Easier One

I worked with a client who came to me completely burned out.

Every year started the same way for him — he’d set big goals in January, promising himself, “This year, I’m finally going to be ahead of deadlines.” He bought a new planner, blocked off his calendar, and started strong. But by the end of February, the chaos would creep in.

He told me about one week in March where he had three tax returns due, a client calling him at 7 a.m. about an “urgent” issue, and an inbox full of 200 unread emails. He described sitting at his desk late into the night, staring at his screen, too exhausted to think straight, and yet still feeling like he hadn’t done enough.

The worst part was that he felt like he was failing — not just at work, but everywhere. He told me, “I’m missing dinner with my family, I can’t sleep, and no matter how hard I work, I’m always behind.”

When we started working together, we didn’t start by adding more hours or forcing him to “push harder.” We started by changing the way he planned.

He learned how to prioritize based on impact, not urgency. He stopped reacting to every email and started making decisions in advance about where his time and energy would go. We worked on creating weekly plans that included white space — time to think, reset, and handle surprises without everything else falling apart. 

And maybe most importantly, he started paying attention to how he wanted to feel before diving into his work.

Fast forward to the end of that year, and he was a completely different person. He was leaving the office on time most days. He stopped constantly checking his email because he trusted his plan. Even during busy season, he felt calmer and more in control.

What surprised him most wasn’t the fact that he got more done — it was that he felt better doing it. He told me, “For the first time in years, I feel like I’m leading my year instead of chasing it.”

That’s the power of planning the smarter way. You don’t have to change your workload overnight — you change the way you approach it, and everything else follows.

And his story isn’t unique. I see this transformation happen all the time when accountants learn how to plan in a way that works with their brains instead of against them.

And that brings us to the big takeaway from today’s episode — a few key reminders that can help you start setting yourself up for an easier, more intentional year right now.

Key Takeaway and Action Item

When you plan the wrong way — relying on endless to-do lists, reacting to whatever feels urgent, and hoping you’ll “figure it out as you go” — it leads to chaos. That’s when the year starts running you instead of you running the year.

But when you plan the smarter way, everything shifts. You create clarity about what matters most, focus on the work that moves the needle, and build balance into your year instead of trying to squeeze more in.

And remember, this isn’t about working harder or pushing yourself to do more. Your brain doesn’t need more effort — it needs structure. 

When you create a clear plan that works with your brain instead of against it, you reduce stress, make better decisions, and finally feel more in control of your time and your year.

If you want to start applying this today, here’s a question to ask yourself:

“Am I planning in a way that gives my brain clarity — or am I leaving it to figure things out as I go?”

How you answer that will give you insight into why your year has felt harder than it needs to be — and where you have the opportunity to do things differently.

And before we wrap up, I want to share a personal story from my own experience — a time when I learned firsthand just how much smarter planning can change everything.

Pulling Back the Curtain

Pulling back the curtain…

I’ll be honest with you — I didn’t always plan the smarter way.

I still remember one particular year when I thought I had everything under control. I had a long to-do list, a fresh calendar I had asked for for Christmas, and what I thought was a solid plan. But by February, I was already behind. By March, I was drowning.

I was working late nights and weekends, saying yes to everything, and constantly putting out fires. I kept telling myself, “If I just work a little harder, I’ll catch up.” 

But the harder I worked, the further behind I felt. I ended that year completely exhausted and frustrated, wondering why it always felt like my year was running me instead of me running it.

I remember complaining to my husband that I definitely didn’t end the year the way I had hoped.  That’s when I decided to do things differently. Instead of just relying on a growing to-do list and hoping I’d figure it out as I went, 

I learned about how my brain works when it comes to time management and I started intentionally planning. I got clear on my priorities. I made decisions about my time in advance. And maybe most importantly, I started paying attention to how I wanted to feel while getting things done.

The difference was incredible. I still had deadlines, clients, and unexpected challenges — but I wasn’t in constant reaction mode anymore. 

I had space to breathe. I had clarity on what mattered most. And for the first time in a long time, I ended the year feeling accomplished instead of drained.

My husband even commented at the end of that year that I seemed like a different person.  I was happier and much less stressed than he had ever seen me.

That’s why I’m so passionate about helping accountants plan smarter — because I’ve been on both sides of it. I know what it feels like to be stuck in chaos, and I know how powerful it is when you finally take back control of your time, your energy, and your year.

If you want next year to feel easier, I want to help you get started:

• Take The Smarter Accountant Quiz at www.thesmarteraccountant.com to find out where you’re getting stuck and what you can do differently.
  
• Schedule your free 30-minute call at www.thesmarteraccountant.com/calendar, and we’ll talk through your specific challenges and what smarter planning could look like for you.
  
• And if this episode helped you, please share it with another accountant who could use a little relief heading into next year.
  

Because the truth is, planning smarter isn’t just about getting more done — it’s about making your year easier, calmer, and more intentional. You deserve that.

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

Before I get started I wanted to mention that as someone who has studied time management for years, I love being able to help accountants to be more productive and effective without burning out in the process.  That’s why I created The Smarter Accountant Productivity Quiz.  

If you can relate to feeling like there’s never enough time to get everything done, not knowing how to properly estimate or guarantee you’ll follow through no matter what or having a never-ending to-do list that creates stress and overwhelm then this quiz is for you.

The quiz will help you discover your Productivity Score, get more done in less time, and save an average of 5 hours a week.  It will also help you learn what works and what doesn’t, giving you plenty of time to get more done without feeling rushed and overwhelmed.

You can simply take the quiz at https://thesmarteraccountant.com/productivity-quiz-2/

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

Have you ever noticed how people treat you a certain way, almost like they’ve been given a rulebook you didn’t write? Maybe they assume you’re always available. Or that you’ll pick up the slack, no matter what.

It’s not always a big thing. Sometimes it’s small, like a client texting late at night or a coworker dropping something on your desk without asking. But those little things add up.

After a while, it can start to feel like everyone else is in charge of your time. You might find yourself saying yes when you want to say no. Or working longer hours just to keep up with everyone’s demands.

It’s easy to think, “That’s just the way things are.” Especially when you’re used to being the go-to person who gets it done. But what if it didn’t have to be that way?

What if you could show people a different way to treat you—and your time?

The truth is, people will treat you how you let them. It’s not always on purpose. Most of the time, they don’t even realize they’re doing it. But the more you say yes without thinking, or stay quiet when something feels off, the more they think it’s okay.

The problem is, no one teaches us how to set those boundaries. And in accounting, where the work is non-stop and the pressure is high, it can feel like there’s no room to push back. 

You want to be helpful. You want to be a team player. But you also want to feel respected and in control.

The truth is that you deserve to feel like your time matters. You deserve to feel like your needs matter too.

It doesn’t mean being rude or difficult. It just means showing others what works for you and what doesn’t. It means giving them the real rulebook.

And once you do that, things really can change. You start to feel less resentful. You start to enjoy your work again. You stop feeling pulled in a million directions.

The bottom line is that it’s not about doing more. It’s about choosing what works for you—and letting others know.

So if you’ve ever felt like people treat you or your time like it’s always available… this is something you’re going to want to hear.

Teaching People How to Treat You (Without Feeling Guilty)

One of the most important things you can do in your career—and in your life—is to teach people how to treat you. And that starts with boundaries.

When someone calls or texts you after hours and you answer right away, you’ve just taught them that it’s okay. When a coworker says, “Can I just ask you something really quick?” for the third time that day, and you drop what you’re doing to help, you’ve taught them that your time is always available.

It’s not that people are trying to be disrespectful. Most of the time, they’re just doing what works for them. But if you don’t say what works for you, they’ll keep doing it.

The hard truth is that people will keep pushing until you push back—or burn out. If you don’t show them where the line is, they won’t know they’ve crossed it.

Every time you say yes when you really mean no, you send a signal. You teach them that your needs come second. That your time and energy are up for grabs.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. Smarter accountants know that boundaries aren’t walls—they’re instructions. And the clearer your instructions, the less confusion there is for everyone.

It might feel awkward at first. Saying, “I don’t respond to work messages after 6pm,” or “I’ll need to schedule time to discuss that” can feel strange when you’re used to being the fixer. But clarity now prevents resentment later.

Think about it this way: if you don’t teach people how to treat you, they’ll guess. And their guesses usually aren’t in your favor.

So take a moment to check in. Have you actually communicated your limits, or are you silently hoping people will figure them out? What behaviors are you allowing that don’t actually work for you?

It’s not about changing other people. It’s about changing what you allow.

And once you’ve done that, there’s something else you need to teach them too—how to treat your time.

Teaching People to Respect Your Time (So You Can Finally Get It Back)

Your time is not unlimited. It’s one of the most valuable things you have—and once it’s gone, you don’t get it back.

But too often, other people treat our time like it’s theirs. They double-book us, pull us into last-minute meetings, or assume we’re always available to jump in and help.

It’s not always on purpose. Most people are just focused on their own priorities. If you haven’t clearly communicated how you manage your time, they’ll keep adding to your plate.

The truth is, if you don’t protect your time, someone else will use it for you. Every open hour on your calendar is a space someone else might fill. And if you don’t have a plan for that time, you’ll spend your days reacting instead of leading.

This is why blocking your time is more than just a scheduling technique—it’s a boundary. It’s a way to say, “This time matters. I’ve already decided how I’m using it.”

Smarter Accountants know they can’t do everything for everyone. They plan their time in advance and protect it like they would protect client data—because it’s just as important.

If you often feel like your day slips away from you, or that you’re constantly catching up, take a look at what you’ve been saying yes to. Ask yourself, “What do I keep saying yes to that’s draining my time or energy?”

Your calendar should reflect your priorities, not other people’s emergencies.

And if you’ve ever wondered why it’s so hard to set these boundaries around your time, the answer might surprise you—it has to do with your brain. Let’s talk about that next.

Why Your Brain Struggles to Set Boundaries (And What You Can Do About It)

If setting boundaries feels hard for you, you’re not broken—you’re human. Your brain is simply doing what it was designed to do.

From a survival standpoint, your brain is wired to avoid conflict and seek approval. Thousands of years ago, being part of the group meant staying alive. So your brain still sees belonging as safety—even if the “danger” now is just disappointing a client or saying no to a coworker.

That’s why saying “no” can feel so uncomfortable. It can trigger guilt, fear of rejection, or a sense that you’re letting someone down. Even if it makes sense logically, emotionally it feels risky.

When you say yes—especially when someone praises you or thanks you for helping—your brain gets a little hit of dopamine. It feels good in the moment. 

That’s what makes people-pleasing so sneaky. It gives you short-term relief… but often leads to long-term burnout.

The part of your brain that wants to be liked is fast, automatic, and emotional. It reacts in real time. 

But the part of your brain that can see the bigger picture—that knows you need time to think, plan, and focus—is slower and more thoughtful. It’s called the prefrontal cortex, and it’s the part that helps you make decisions for your future self.

Every time you pause and think before saying yes, you’re strengthening that part of your brain. Every time you block your time and protect it, you’re reminding your brain that your well-being matters too.

So if boundary-setting feels tough, that’s not a flaw. It’s your brain doing what it believes is keeping you safe. But you’re the one in charge—and you can re-train it to respond in a smarter way.

Now let’s look at what this actually looks like in real life—and how one accountant made this shift.

Becoming a Smarter Accountant: What Happens When You Start Teaching People How to Treat You

One of my coaching clients—a successful CPA at a growing firm—came to me completely overwhelmed. He was working late most nights, skipping lunch, and constantly fielding messages from team members, clients, and even partners, all expecting immediate answers.

He wasn’t lazy. He wasn’t disorganized. He was actually incredibly efficient—but he was also exhausted. The real problem wasn’t how he worked. It was that he had never taught people how to treat him or his time.

He felt like he couldn’t say no. If someone needed something, he’d drop everything. If someone sent an email, he’d respond within minutes—even if he was in the middle of deep work. He was trying to be helpful, but it came at the cost of his focus, energy, and peace of mind.

In coaching, we talked about the stories his brain was telling him. Stories like, “If I don’t respond right away, they’ll think I’m not doing my job,” or “It’s easier to just do it now than deal with it later.” These thoughts made it nearly impossible for him to protect his time or set clear boundaries.

Once we uncovered those patterns, everything started to shift.

He began setting expectations with his team. Instead of being available all day, he created “office hours” for questions and blocked time for focused work. He added an auto-reply to emails letting clients know when they could expect a response. And most importantly, he stopped apologizing for needing uninterrupted time to do his job well.

The result was that he was still getting everything done—but without the constant interruptions and resentment. His team actually became more independent. His clients respected his communication even more. And for the first time in years, he left the office at a reasonable time without guilt.

It wasn’t about becoming someone else. It was about teaching others how to treat him—and showing up for himself in the process.

Now let’s wrap things up and talk about what this all means for you.

Key Takeaway and Action Item

Here’s the big takeaway from today’s episode: You’re always teaching people how to treat you—whether you realize it or not.

Every time you say yes when you want to say no… every time you stay late without speaking up… every time you answer that “quick” email on a Saturday—you’re sending a message. Not just to them, but to yourself.

The question to ask is: “What am I teaching people about how to treat me and my time?”

It’s such an important question because it helps you take back control. It shifts you out of reaction mode and puts you back in charge of your time, your energy, and your boundaries.

You don’t have to do everything. You don’t have to be available all the time. And you definitely don’t have to sacrifice your well-being to make others happy.

If you want to feel less stressed and more respected, it starts with you. With what you allow, what you communicate, and what you’re no longer willing to tolerate.

And if you’re wondering what this looks like in my life, let me share a personal story with you.

Pulling Back the Curtain

Pulling back the curtain…

I still remember the first time I told a client I wouldn’t be responding to emails after a certain time. My heart was racing as I hit send. It felt like I was breaking some unspoken rule—like I was doing something wrong just by setting a simple boundary.

Up until then, I had always been available. Nights, weekends, whenever they needed something—I was there.

I thought that’s what made me a good accountant. But honestly, I was drained. And I was starting to dread every ping and notification.

The moment I set that boundary, it felt uncomfortable. But what happened next surprised me—nothing bad. 

In fact, the client respected it. They started getting more organized with their questions. I felt calmer, more focused, and I actually began to enjoy my work again.

That small shift made a huge difference. Not just in how others treated me, but in how I treated myself. I stopped putting everyone else first and started protecting what mattered to me.

This is what I help my clients with every day—teaching people how to manage their brain so they can manage their life.

If you’re ready to feel more in control, take The Smarter Accountant Quiz at www.thesmarteraccountant.com and schedule a free 30-minute call at www.thesmarteraccountant.com/calendar.

And if this episode helped you, send it to another accountant who could use it too.

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

Before I get started I wanted to wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving whether you are in the United States or not.  Thanksgiving is one of those holidays that I believe everyone can celebrate.

It’s a moment to pause, breathe, and appreciate the things we often rush right past—like the people who support us, the work we get to do, and the small pockets of peace we can find in a busy season.

I also want to say how grateful I am for you—whether you’ve been listening from the beginning or you’re brand new to The Smarter Accountant Podcast. You being here matters, and I don’t take it for granted.

I also want to share a fun memory of growing up and watching the Thanksgiving Day Parade with my family.  When I was younger my parents would tell us that when we saw Santa on the screen at the end of the parade, we needed to shout out loud what we wanted for Christmas so he would hear us.

As an adult, I realized the brilliance in what they had us do.  We were shouting out what we wanted so they could jot it down and get a jump on shopping!  So smart!

Okay, let’s get started with this week’s show….

Let’s be honest—email is one of the biggest parts of an accountant’s day. From the moment you sit down at your desk, the inbox is waiting for you, full of messages that seem to grow by the minute.

It can feel like a never-ending game of whack-a-mole. You answer one email, and two more pop up. No matter how hard you try, there’s always more waiting for you.

That’s why so many accountants talk about “Inbox Zero.” The idea sounds simple—clear out every email until there’s nothing left. On paper, it feels like the perfect solution to the constant flood.

The thought of having no emails sitting there can feel so calming. For a moment, you picture yourself with a clean slate, free of the nagging little red number staring at you all day long.

But here’s the thing—email has a funny way of pulling us in. Every ding or ping feels urgent, and before you know it, you’ve spent half your day clicking, reading, and replying. It’s like your whole schedule gets hijacked by the inbox.

For accountants especially, this hits close to home. Clients, colleagues, and even family members expect fast responses. You want to be helpful, but it’s easy to feel chained to your inbox instead of working on the things that really matter.

Sometimes it almost feels like email runs the show. You might even notice how you get a little rush when you see a new message come in, like it’s more exciting than the work sitting in front of you.

That’s what makes the promise of Inbox Zero so tempting. It feels like a way to finally get control, to take back some peace of mind. And who doesn’t want that?

Still, there’s a reason so many accountants struggle with it. The idea sounds freeing, but actually living it out often feels overwhelming. It raises an important question—what does it really mean to be “on top of your email”?

That’s what we’re going to dig into. Because the truth is, Inbox Zero might not mean what you think it means. And once you see it differently, it changes the way you work.

Why Chasing Inbox Zero Doesn’t Always Work

For a lot of accountants, Inbox Zero feels like the ultimate goal. The idea is that if you can just clear out every single email, you’ll finally feel productive and in control.

But here’s the problem—clearing your inbox doesn’t actually mean you’ve done meaningful work. It just means you’ve spent time answering, deleting, or filing messages. That might feel good in the moment, but it doesn’t always move your most important work forward.

The bigger issue is how emails can trick your brain into thinking they’re urgent. A new message comes in and suddenly it feels like it has to be handled right away. Even when you have more valuable work waiting, the pull of the inbox is hard to resist.

And when you give in, you pay a price. Every time you check your email, you’re pulled out of focus. 

It breaks your flow and makes it harder to get back into deeper work. The more often you do it, the more your day gets chopped into little distracted pieces.

Before you know it, email has become your to-do list. Instead of making choices about what matters most, you let your inbox dictate your priorities. And that means you’re reacting all day instead of planning with intention.

This is why Inbox Zero isn’t the solution it promises to be. It’s not about the number of emails sitting in your inbox—it’s about the way you’re managing your time and attention.

So if chasing Inbox Zero isn’t the answer, what’s the real problem? To understand that, we need to look at why Inbox Zero creates more stress than it solves.

Why Inbox Zero Can Create More Stress Than It Solves

The truth is, email was never designed to be a productivity tool. It was created as a way to communicate, and most of the time it’s built around other people’s needs, not your own. That means your inbox is full of requests, reminders, and demands that might not match your actual priorities.

The tricky part is how your brain reacts to it. There’s something called the Mere Urgency Effect, which simply means your brain treats anything sitting in your inbox as urgent, whether it really is or not. An unread message can feel like an alarm bell going off, even when it’s not important.

For example, looking at a long to-do list or an overflowing inbox can instantly trigger a feeling of overwhelm.

To your brain, it’s not just a list—it feels like a threat, like something you have to conquer right now or else you’re falling behind.

That emotional reaction—especially when you’re unaware of it—is what leads to racing through tasks, avoiding important work, or staying in constant motion without feeling accomplished.

When you chase Inbox Zero, it can feel like you’re gaining control. But that sense of control is short-lived. 

Within minutes, another batch of emails shows up, and the cycle starts all over again. Instead of feeling calmer, you feel pressured to keep up.

This is where so many accountants get stuck. They spend their day reacting to what’s in the inbox instead of deciding what actually matters. The inbox sets the agenda, and the important work ends up waiting.

So what’s really going on here? To understand why email pulls us in so strongly, we need to take a closer look at how the brain works when it comes to messages, pings, and notifications.

The Brain Science Behind Inbox Zero for Accountants

For many accountants, email has become the drug of choice. What I mean by that is, every ping, ding, or notification gives your brain a quick hit of dopamine, the feel good hormone, making you want to jump on that message like a cat pouncing on a mouse.

That little burst of reward feels good in the moment. Clearing an email gives you a quick sense of control, almost like you’ve accomplished something important. But the truth is, answering an email doesn’t always move your real work forward.

The problem is that your brain doesn’t care about the difference. It craves that fast relief, that quick high, so you keep chasing it. The dopamine hit tricks you into thinking that clearing email equals being productive.

But there’s a hidden cost. Every time you switch from focused work to checking your inbox, your brain has to reset. That constant switching drains your energy, scatters your attention, and leaves you feeling more exhausted by the end of the day.

Smarter Accountants understand that the brain will always push for the easy win. That’s why having controlled systems—set times to check email and set times to organize it—matters so much. It’s not about avoiding email, but about keeping it in its place.

So if the brain is wired to keep chasing those little rewards, how can you work with it instead of against it? That’s where a smarter approach to Inbox Zero comes in.

What Accountants Need to Know About Inbox Zero

As I said before, Inbox Zero is often misunderstood. It’s not always about having no emails at all—it’s about having no mental clutter weighing you down. In other words, a cluttered inbox leads to a cluttered mind, and that’s what makes email feel so draining.

The key is control. When you have set times to check email and set times to organize it, the inbox becomes a tool you manage instead of something that manages you. Without boundaries, it’s all too easy to fall into the trap of reacting to every ping or ding, which leaves you scattered and behind.

The truth is, chasing a perfectly empty inbox every single day isn’t realistic, and trying to keep up can actually create more stress. What matters more is creating a steady, sustainable process that you can maintain over time. A rhythm that supports you, rather than one that wears you out.

The bottom line is that you can still aim for Inbox Zero if you want, but it should never come at the cost of your most important work. The truth is, your value as an accountant doesn’t come from how quickly you clear emails. It comes from the deeper work that only you can do.

Inbox Zero only matters if it helps you stay focused on what matters most. That’s why Smarter Accountants use email boundaries to protect their focus and energy, instead of letting the inbox set the pace.

And to show you how this shift actually plays out, I want to share a real example from a coaching client who once felt completely run by their inbox.

Becoming a Smarter Accountant: A Better Inbox Approach

I once worked with a client who thought the best way to stay on top of things was to check his email all day long. Every time a new message popped up, he felt like he needed to respond right away. On the surface, it looked like he was being responsive and responsible.

But underneath, he always felt behind. No matter how many emails he answered, there were always more waiting. He’d end the day drained, frustrated, and wondering why he hadn’t gotten to the projects that really mattered.

When we looked at his schedule together, it was clear that email had completely taken over. Instead of him using it as a tool, it was running the show. That constant back-and-forth of checking and responding was eating up more time and energy than he realized.

So we set up what I call “email containers” on his calendar. These were specific blocks of time set aside for checking messages and organizing them. Instead of reacting all day long, he started handling his email in batches.

The change was incredible. Once he began sticking to his containers, he noticed the stress start to fade. He wasn’t jumping every time he heard a ping. He was able to focus on his accounting work without being pulled away every few minutes.

For the first time in a long time, he felt in control of his day instead of constantly playing catch-up. And that shift—from scattered and overwhelmed to calm and steady—changed the way he approached not just email, but his work as a whole.

The bottom line is that this is what happens when you stop letting your inbox run you and start putting boundaries around it. Now let me share the key takeaway from this episode and an action item for you this week.

Key Takeaway and Action Item

The big takeaway from today is that Inbox Zero isn’t really about having no emails at all—it’s about having no mental clutter. If you clear your inbox every day but still feel stressed and behind, you’re missing the point. The real goal is to feel in control of your time and attention, not just your messages.

A good question to ask yourself is, “Am I using email as a tool, or am I letting it run my day?” The answer can tell you a lot about why you may feel drained or distracted, even after hours of checking and replying.

The truth is, your brain wants the quick relief that comes from answering emails, but that doesn’t mean you’re being productive. The smarter approach is to set clear boundaries, create controlled times for checking and organizing email, and keep your focus on the bigger work that really matters. 

The bottom line is that Inbox Zero shouldn’t be a badge of honor that costs you your time and sanity.  It should be a suggestion, not a rule.  When you do that, you’ll start to feel more calm and clear without letting your inbox take over.

Pulling Back the Curtain

Pulling back the curtain…

I’ll be honest, for a long time I used to chase Inbox Zero every single week. It felt like if I could just clear everything out, I’d finally be on top of things. And for a short moment, I did feel that way—like I had it all under control. 

But the truth was, it didn’t always last. By the next day, or sometimes even the next hour, more emails had piled in and I was right back where I started.

After a while, I realized it was unsustainable. I was spending so much time trying to get my inbox to zero that it was stealing energy and focus away from the work that actually mattered. It became this endless game that I could never really win.

Now I’ve shifted my approach. Instead of stressing about clearing my inbox every week, I dedicate one hour once a month to really clean things up. 

In between, I stick to my controlled system of checking and organizing at specific times throughout the day. It’s not perfect, but it’s sustainable, and more importantly—it doesn’t run my life anymore.

That’s why I say Inbox Zero isn’t about the number of emails sitting in your inbox. You’re not going to win a prize for having zero emails in your inbox when you’re also stressed and overwhelmed.

It’s about whether you feel calm and in control, instead of pulled in a hundred directions. And once you experience that shift, everything about how you work starts to feel easier.

So if you’ve been chasing Inbox Zero and finding it exhausting, I want you to know there’s another way. You don’t have to let your inbox run the show. 

And if you want help creating a system that works for your brain and your schedule, I’d love to talk with you. You can take The Smarter Accountant Quiz at www.thesmarteraccountant.com, and you can also schedule a free 30-minute call with me at www.thesmarteraccountant.com/calendar.

Lastly, if you know another accountant who could use this episode—someone who’s drowning in email overload—please share this with them. We all deserve to feel better about the work we do and the life we’re creating.

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