classes
bite the candy
Bite through procrastination and discover the treats at the bottom of your to-do list.
emotional and practical tax prep
We’re getting it over with together in this special Bite the Candy event. Join heart-based bookkeeper Jessica Reagan Salzman and get a jump on your tax prep. Make this the year you don’t have to panic in April. And heal your relationship with money a bit in the process.
the maintenance department
A space for graduates of The True Discipline of Time Management and The Organic Business Manual to continue learning how to care for themselves, their time and their businesses.
|
"Yay! Today's bookkeeping day!" (Not.)
It's not uncommon for people to procrastinate, especially when it comes to bookkeeping and accounting tasks. I can honestly say that I've never once heard someone sit down at their desk and say, "Yay! Today's bookkeeping day!"
However, the opposite is quite true. I have folks e-mailing me all the time saying, "I've always been meaning to tackle this bookkeeping stuff, but I've really been putting it off so often that it's now become a big, nasty project!"
The first thing I want to say about this is that sometimes avoiding something is healthy. Sometimes we need to be in a certain mood or state of being to effectively tackle something.
My own bookkeeping sometimes gets the snooze button for a few days when I'm just not feeling it. And I let myself off the hook when I don't feel like doing it, because I know, from past experience, that if I jump in when I AM in the mood, I fly through it with joy!
And if there's a surprising outcome, like less money coming in than I'd hoped and anticipated, I can absorb that information much more easily when I'm in the right space, mentally. So it's worth it to listen to internal signals about doing or not doing the accounting (or anything else for that matter).
But making sure it's not a long lasting pattern of avoidance is key.
And I completely understand that fear plays into most people's avoidance of bookkeeping and accounting tasks. There's often an underlying fear that you may uncover something terrifying. Even though you may feel like everything in your business is financially pretty healthy right now, you may still have all that fear and worry tied up in the "thought of money."
But you also know how good it feels when your books are up-to-date. So there is a certain appeal to having it done, it's just the getting it there that feels overwhelming.
You may even have come to the realization that the fear of doing it is worse than the reality of doing it, but it can still be so hard to take the first steps to get going on it.
When I find myself in that spot, here's what I do. I use a trick.
I tell myself I'm NOT going to do all of it right now. I'm only going to do X (for example, open the QuickBooks file up).
Then once the QB file is open, I say, okay, now I'm only going to download the bank statement from the bank.
I literally allow myself to choose to stop after each step, saying I'm only going to do the next step and then stop after that.
It breaks down the resistance (the automatic fight/flight instinct within) just enough that soon enough I'm flying through without even realizing I'm doing it ALL! Once I start, I just keep going. And before I know it, I'm all caught up.
I remind myself to use this trick whenever I'm avoiding doing something by thinking of this slogan I learned when on the island of St. Lucia for my honeymoon in June of 2003... And you've got to say it to yourself with an island flair to really make it work!
"Eh Mon, no pressures, no problems!"
So if you've been avoiding tackling your bookkeeping and accounting, or any other business or life task for that matter, try taking the pressure off yourself and seeing if you can build a little momentum into your process and it'll all be done before you even have time to think about how much you don't want to be doing it!
One last thing to consider: it's often hugely helpful to have an accountability buddy when you're facing a big (or even not so big) project. Especially when it's in an arena of your business that might bring up emotions and fears...
So if you think it might be helpful to join up with others in the same situation and hear more tips and additional guidance about how to make things happen so you're ready for tax day before tax day has arrived, please join me February 4 and 11 for my tele-workshop with Cairene.
• • • • •
Jessica Reagan Salzman founded Heart Based Bookkeeping out of her passion to assist small business owners as they traverse the path to creating a successful business. You can learn more about Jessica at JessRS.com and you can follow her on Twitter @JessRS.
|
subscription info
I encourage you to share this newsletter with people you think may enjoy it. When doing so, please forward it in its entirety, including my contact and copyright information. Thanks!
If you received this issue of Get In Gear from a reader and would like your own subscription, please click here.
To update your email address or unsubscribe, please click the link at the bottom of the newsletter.
An archive of past issues of the Get In Gear newsletter can be browsed here.
Unless otherwise attributed, all material is written and edited by Cairene MacDonald.
© 2010 Cairene MacDonald, Third Hand Works. All rights reserved.
Cairene MacDonald
Third Hand Works
PO Box 31113
Portland, OR 97231
contact
from overwhelmed to ready for anything
organization and time management for people in their "right" minds
Third Hand Works | administrative guidance for independent creative professionals |
