Before I get started I wanted to let you know that I’m going to be offering the same CPE course a few times each month and so the next time the Smarter Accountant CPE Course “Everything You Need To Know About Procrastination” will be offered is on Friday, June 13th at 12 pm EST.  You can sign up at https://thesmarteraccountant.com/cpe/.  You’ll not only get CPE credit but I will also be sending the replay and a workbook so that you can apply what you learned.

Have you ever had one of those days where everything feels heavy—even if nothing is technically “wrong”? You’re answering emails, checking things off your list, maybe even staying late to get ahead… and yet, you still feel behind, scattered, and drained.

If that sounds familiar, you’re not alone.

The truth is, there’s one mental habit most accountants are stuck in that makes everything harder than it needs to be. It’s sneaky. Automatic. And often goes completely unnoticed.

You don’t learn about it in school or in any CPE class—but it affects how you manage your time, how you respond to stress, and even how you feel at the end of the day.

This mental habit is the reason you might feel overwhelmed even when you’re getting things done. It’s the reason your days can feel like a blur of urgency, even if you’re organized and capable.

Here’s something to consider: think about the last time you were completely overwhelmed. Was it really the number of things on your list? Or was it the voice in your head saying, “This is too much. I’ll never catch up”?

Most of us don’t even realize that we’re believing every single thought our brain throws at us. And when we do that without question, those thoughts start to run the show—whether they’re helpful or not.

This is why so many accountants feel stuck, even when they’re doing everything “right.”  But the good news? You’re not stuck. Not even close.

Today we’re going to uncover the one mental habit that’s quietly making your work life harder than it has to be—and what happens when you start thinking differently, on purpose.

If you’ve ever felt like you’re just reacting all day instead of leading your time and your workload, this episode is going to give you a whole new way to see what’s really going on. 

The Mental Habit That Keeps Accountants Stuck

So what is this mental habit that’s making work feel so overwhelming—even when you’re doing your best?

It’s the habit of never questioning your own thinking.

In psychology, it’s called metacognition—basically, thinking about your thinking. It’s your ability to pause, notice what your brain is telling you, and decide whether those thoughts are actually helpful.

But here’s the thing: most of us don’t do this. Especially as accountants, we’re taught to look at facts and numbers—but we rarely step back to examine the thoughts running through our own minds all day long.

Instead, we believe every thought our brain offers:

“There’s not enough time.”

“I can’t say no.”

“I’ll never catch up.”

And because we don’t question those thoughts, they quietly control how we feel and what we do.

Think of metacognition like a mental audit. Instead of reviewing financial statements, you’re reviewing your own thought processes. You’re checking for errors—not in your spreadsheets, but in your assumptions.

Let’s say two accountants have the exact same workload. One is burned out and anxious. The other is calm and focused. What’s the difference? Not the workload. The way they think about the workload.

The overwhelmed accountant believes they have no control. The focused one believes they get to decide what matters. It’s not the work that’s the problem—it’s the mental habit of reacting instead of reflecting.

When you start paying attention to your thoughts—really noticing what’s running in the background—you can choose which ones to keep and which ones to let go of. And that’s where real change happens.

In the next section, let’s look at why this habit is so common among accountants—and why breaking it can be a complete game-changer.

How Questioning Your Thoughts Can Instantly Improve Your Work Life

If you’re like most accountants, it probably feels like your biggest challenges come from your workload, tight deadlines, or demanding clients. But here’s the truth: it’s not the work—it’s the way you think about the work that creates the most stress.

This is why that one mental habit—never questioning your thoughts—can quietly make everything harder.

When you don’t pause to notice what your brain is telling you, you stay stuck in reaction mode. You move from task to task, feeling overwhelmed, but never fully understanding why.

That’s where metacognition—thinking about your thinking—comes in. It gives you the power to stop the stress cycle before it takes over your day.

Let’s take time management. If you believe, “I have to be available all the time,” your brain will push you to check emails constantly and say yes to everything, even when it pulls you away from important work.

But when you step back and ask, “Is that even true?”—you create space to make smarter, more intentional choices.

The same thing happens with decision-making. Without awareness, you make decisions out of habit or urgency. You overcommit, say yes when you want to say no, and feel frustrated—but never stop to ask yourself what’s really driving those choices.

Stress and overwhelm is the same story. The feeling doesn’t come from your calendar—it comes from thoughts like, “There’s too much to do,” running unchecked in the background. Challenge that thought, you start to feel more in control—even if your schedule stays the same.

Even relationships get easier. If a boss or client is difficult, it’s easy to assume they are the problem. But when you slow down and notice what you’re thinking—like assuming they don’t respect you or always expecting the worst—you can start to respond in a calmer, more productive way.

And then there’s the issue confidence. If your brain keeps telling you you’re not doing enough or not good enough, those thoughts will chip away at your confidence—even when you’re doing just fine.

When you start catching those thoughts, you stop taking them as facts—and everything changes.

This kind of awareness is what separates constantly stressed accountants from those who feel calm and in control.

But if it’s so helpful, why don’t we do it more often? To answer that, we need to look at what’s happening in your brain.

Why Your Brain Keeps You Stuck in Stress Mode Without You Realizing It

Here’s the thing most accountants don’t know—your brain is designed to keep you on autopilot.

It forms thought patterns based on your past experiences and then repeats them, whether they’re helpful or not. So if you’ve spent years responding to stress by overworking or trying to please everyone, your brain will default to those patterns automatically.

This is why you often react the same way to tight deadlines, difficult clients, or a packed calendar—even if you’ve promised yourself you’d handle things differently this time.

The part of your brain responsible for making smart, strategic choices is your prefrontal cortex—what I like to call your Supervising Parent. This is where long-term thinking, planning, and problem-solving happen.

But when you’re overwhelmed or rushed, another part of your brain takes over: your survival brain. I call it your Toddler Brain because it reacts emotionally, wants instant gratification, and doesn’t think things through.

That’s when you start making choices from urgency instead of intention. You check your email obsessively, say yes to requests you don’t have time for, and prioritize tasks that feel urgent—even if they’re not actually important.

This tendency has a name: The Mere Urgency Effect.

It’s your brain’s way of tricking you into believing that urgent = important, even when it’s not. And for accountants, this mental shortcut shows up everywhere—especially in the pressure to always be available.

You might feel guilty for not checking your inbox every ten minutes, even though staying focused on one meaningful task would be far more productive.

Without metacognition, these patterns run silently in the background. You don’t realize you’re stuck in them—you just feel overwhelmed, reactive, and exhausted.

But when you start observing your thoughts, you interrupt those automatic loops. You take back control from the Toddler Brain and re-engage your Supervising Parent.

So, what actually changes when an accountant puts this into practice? Let me show you what that looks like in real life.

Becoming a Smarter Accountant: Using Metacognition

Let me share what this looks like in practice.

I worked with an accountant who was doing everything she could to stay on top of her work—but still felt completely overwhelmed. No matter how many hours she put in, she couldn’t shake the feeling that she was always behind.

Her days were packed with emails, meetings, client requests, and constant interruptions. The projects that actually mattered were always pushed to the side. She was exhausted but couldn’t figure out why she wasn’t making more progress.

She thought the problem was her workload. But the real issue was how she thought about her workload.

She believed she had to say yes to everything. She believed that answering emails right away was part of being a good accountant. She believed that if she just worked harder, she would eventually catch up.

But her brain was stuck in that familiar, automatic habit—reacting to everything that felt urgent. She wasn’t making decisions with intention—she was just trying to keep up.

Once she started learning metacognition—learning to think about her thinking—everything started to shift.

She began catching her thoughts in real time.  She saw that her belief, “I have to respond immediately,” wasn’t actually true.

She realized that saying yes to every request meant saying no to the deep work that really moved things forward.  And she finally questioned the belief that more hours equals more productivity.

She started setting priorities ahead of time instead of reacting in the moment. She gave herself permission to pause, to choose, and to protect her focus.

The result was that she started working fewer hours—and getting more done.  She stopped ending every day frustrated and drained.

And for the first time in years, she felt in control of her workload instead of being controlled by it.

This is what smarter accountants do. They don’t just try to keep up—they learn how to think differently so they can finally work differently.

And that leads us to the most important takeaway from today’s episode.

Key Takeaway and Action Item

The most important thing to remember is that the way you think shapes the way you work. If you never stop to examine your thoughts, you’ll keep running in the same patterns—stressed, overwhelmed, and constantly reacting. But when you learn to step back and observe your thinking, everything changes.

For this week, ask yourself, “Where am I letting my automatic thoughts run the show instead of making intentional choices?”

The truth is, if you never question your thoughts, they will control you. You’ll keep believing you don’t have enough time, that you have to say yes to everything, or that working harder is the only solution. But those are just thoughts—not facts.

When you start paying attention to what’s happening in your mind, you can decide which thoughts to keep and which ones to change. That’s how accountants move from feeling stuck to feeling in control. It’s not about working more or doing things faster. It’s about thinking smarter.

The bottom line is that you don’t need another productivity hack or time management trick. You need a new way of thinking.

Pulling Back the Curtain

Pulling back the curtain for a moment…

I’ll be honest—there was a long stretch in my career where I didn’t even realize my brain was offering me thoughts that weren’t helpful. I didn’t question them. I didn’t slow down long enough to notice them.

I just believed them.

Thoughts like, “You’re falling behind,” or “If you were better at this, you wouldn’t feel so stressed,” or “You have to say yes or people will be disappointed.”

And the thing is, those thoughts weren’t loud or dramatic. They were subtle. They felt factual. I didn’t even think to challenge them because they seemed like common sense.

But they were running the show—controlling how I felt, how I worked, and how I saw myself.

I remember this one week in particular, years ago, when I was absolutely crushed with deadlines. I had my calendar planned out perfectly, but nothing went according to plan. And instead of adjusting or giving myself any grace, my brain went straight into, “You’re failing. You’re behind. You’re not doing enough.”

I stayed up late. I skipped meals. I spun in self-doubt.

Not because the work was impossible—but because I was believing everything my brain said, without question.

That’s when things really started to shift for me—when I learned to pause and say, “Wait… is that actually true?”

That simple question changed everything. It gave me a little distance between me and the thought. And that distance gave me power.

This is why I teach metacognition to every accountant I work with—because it’s not about doing more. It’s about thinking differently so you can finally work differently.

If this episode made something click for you—if you started to notice how often your thoughts are quietly running the show—I want to invite you to take The Smarter Accountant Quiz at www.thesmarteraccountant.com.

It’s not just a quiz—it’s a mirror. It’ll help you start to see what’s really going on beneath the surface of your stress or procrastination or overwhelm.

And if you want help making sense of what’s coming up, you can schedule a free 30-minute call with me at www.thesmarteraccountant.com/calendar. We’ll walk through what your brain’s been believing—and what’s actually true.

And if you’ve been enjoying this podcast, the best way you can support it is by sharing it with another accountant. We’ve all believed thoughts that don’t serve us. Sometimes, we just need someone to show us how to think smarter.

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