It's Here It's Here Tax Season is Here!
And there is not enough coffee
Or is there enough coffee?
I’m starting to think there just might be enough.
I mentioned on Tax Twitter it might be time to let go of Marchternity (or at least think of what Marchternity for what it is - a symptom of a much larger problem). With that, and the renewed sense of excitement (or something like excitement) at the release of the IRS opening for filing, I’m diving in head first. Or as close to it as I can. My engagement letter templates are prepared. I have much better systems to go from one thing to another in place than I’ve ever experienced before. My organizers (links to templates below) are at least mostly done.
And they’re all getting out.
And I’m spending time with my kids. My youngest (4) was just playing with some toys at my feet for 10 minutes. I’m working through the 100DaysofNoCode Challenge with my oldest (10). My middle child (6) sometimes shares their handwriting practice with me. This is, by far, the smoothest entrance to tax season I’ve ever had. I’ve fought for this tooth and nail with deliberate actions and some pretty massive failures.
Planning
No, not tax planning.
There’s something out there that says if you’re not making a plan, you’re planning on failing. Or something like that. I don’t think that’s 100% accurate. But there is some truth to it. November and December I was on the struggle bus. I had a ton of administrative work that had to be done. There was no more escaping it. I had to:
Build out new and better programs
Field the large number of new client inquiries
Strengthen my new client screening - my Intro Survey (link to the template as well as a new, secondary template below)
Re-build project management templates so they’re working for me
Keep moving forward on the stragglers
All of this meant several things ended up falling through the cracks. And I’ve been in an anxiety spiral. And there’s been some personal/family things going on.
There was just too much happening. But it wasn’t a new feeling. It’s how I’ve felt for quite some time - that there’s all these straggler things out there than need to be addressed and it doesn’t happen. Then those stragglers pop up and have to be addressed, and the not straggler things become stragglers.
I went on the hunt for some time blocking help. I know time blocking is good for me. I know it can really help me. But I’ve never really put a full amount of effort into it. But it was past time for me to find a solution that worked for me. I wanted something that would:
automate my time blocking at least a little bit
Pull information from my project management system
Help me create a routine
Offer me flexibility in that routine
I landed at Friday.app. It didn’t have the automations I was looking for, but, it did pull in my tasks from ClickUp (assuming they had a due date assigned to them), and has a clever accountability and re-focus feature in the form of checkins that I’ve found really helpful.
I did find I was spending entirely too much time actually doing the timeblocking. And, while I was starting to pull ahead, it wasn’t in the way I needed and wanted this to happen.
Sometime between the Solstice and Christmas Eve, I saw an ad on Facebook for Reclaim.ai. I really wanted this to work. I wanted to try it. It was so, so promising. But I also didn’t want to go down another software rabbit hole to find something less than desireable. My cynical husband told me to do it: worst case scenario, I would loose a little bit of time.
And oh am I so thrilled about that choice. This tool has been life changing. I don’t get lost during the day. Once it knows something exists, Reclaim does all the scheduling for me. It’s flexible in that I can pick and choose what I want to work on at any given time. And it builds in habits. So I have time blocked off to catch-up on things like email, small things that pile up, and I can even build in habits for doing things like taking a walk.
I’ve not gotten to putting in habits for myself yet. I need and want to. I’m not there yet.
Stragglers
There’s still things left over from the last two years that need to be completed. That’s not new, and it won’t change. Choosing to retain those clients might be another question entirely. But, for now, Reclaim and boundaries with those clients are helping me get those projects completed.
Tools and Templates
This is for paid subscribers only. I’ve created some new and updated some old Cognito Forms for 2022. There may still be some tweaks coming, however, those will be minor (and will be discussed below).
As with any template, you should use these at your own risk. Review the template, evaluate it for your client base, and update the styles to your branding.