Deadline, Then Decompress

It's October. We made it! Although it may feel like 2 weeks is eternity we are almost there. And you know what that's a good time for? Doing absolutely nothing productive for at least a day. Maybe even more. I mean it.

Every deadline I end up shutting down my brain for a solid week because it turns out you can't sprint for six weeks and then immediately sprint again.

I constantly hear firm owners say, "Yuri — I don't have time to rest, the work doesn't stop." Fair. But an unproductive burned-out version of you costs more than a day off does. Take the day. The work will still be there.

For me personally, the week after 10/15 I block my calendar entirely — no calls, no meetings, nothing client-facing. I use it to sleep, catch up with my kids, and only skim my inbox for anything truly on fire.

While it's still fresh please please use this month to write down the items that drained you in tax season. The things that really frustrated you and that you want to actually change.

Which software choked when volume spiked? Where did documents get lost? What did you say "never again" about out loud at least once? Write it down now. Then once you come back from that well-needed break throw this list into claude and see what recommendations you get for solutions that may work.

For me personally, its going to be time to look into efficiencies ahead of tax season. Maybe a document checklist tool maybe looking deeper into TaxDome to see what automations I can implement.

I think that after the deadline this year we will see a massive amount of small firm owners go into action. A lot of the folks in the bigger public accounting firms are fed up with the old school ways and the treatment. PE entering the game heavy is also not helping anything and I think there is no better time to be a small firm owner than right now.

That's it for this month! Hit reply and tell me what landed — I read everything. See you next month. 🎉

— Yuri

#TheFunCPA