Busy Season

As an auditor, working in public accounting my busiest time of the year runs from January through sometime in March. Since most of my firm's large clients have to file financial statements near the beginning of the year everyone in the firm is putting in extra hours to meet important deadlines. Because I work on the audit, and not the tax side how busy it gets is closely tied to the clients I am working on. The clients I am assigned to work on also determine when my busy season starts and ends. My busy season is set to kick off tomorrow. The minimum expectation during the busy season is to work 55 hours a week, but some of the time, client deadlines require an even greater commitment. Since there are a limited number of hours in a day and I am spending more of them at work I end up having to cut back in other areas. For the next week, I am going to be keeping track of my schedule and what I do each day to record a snapshot of what my busy season is actually like.

Fortunately, the team I am working with is very flexible and has set up a schedule that I love. We plan to work for 12 hours a day 5 days a week (really 4 days because we will take off a little early on Friday). Many members of my team come in early in the morning so that we can leave somewhat early in the evening. The team I am on implemented this strategy last busy season and found it was very successful. I am anxious to see how it will work for me.

This busy season I am going to focus on a few things that are very important to me. First and most important is Alison. I am very lucky to have a very supportive wife. We have always been willing to make sacrifices when they are necessary. We have found that work sacrifices strengthen our marriage. This happens as we make a conscious effort to focus on making the most of the time we have together. This busy season I plan to make sure my weekends are spent with Alison. Since we will see each other less during the week it will be important to make the most of the time will have to spend together.

Second I want to focus on exceeding expectations at work. The feedback I received going into the busy season about my performance was overwhelmingly positive. As such, I want to stay on a roll and continue to shine in my job. I am going to have a lot of new responsibilities during my staff year and I am going to need to embrace those responsibilities in a way that helps me contribute to the team.

Third I want to focus on my health. During the busy season, the firm will buy me lunch and dinner every day. It is awesome to not have to worry about my meals during such a busy time, but it makes eating healthy a challenge. I have already been focusing on my diet for a couple weeks in advance of the busy season and I have really good momentum going in. Now it is just a matter of continuing to make healthy choices. I also have pretty ambitious exercise goals. I am working toward running in the SLC half marathon in April. Since just about a month or so after my busy season will end I will have to fit my running schedule in. This will require me to get up really early some days each week.

I have been practicing key parts of my busy season schedule for the past two weeks. I got up really early quite a few days each week to go to the gym. I made sure I could be ready to go to the door in time to be at work at 7am. Tomorrow morning it begins for real. Despite the craziness, the busy season brings I am going to try to enjoy it.