Trying Harder Is Not the Fix. Working Smarter Is.

January is over. 1099s have been filed. Well, most of them. W-2s have been mailed. You bought the Gratitude Journal you swore you’d start this year. It’s still blank, staring at you like your Mom giving you the evil eye to eat those peas. Now you can breathe again. 😮‍💨

Your brain sells the same thing every year: “If I just try harder, next January will be easier.”

If trying harder was the answer, I would be thin and rich. Instead, you are tired, behind on sleep, cuddling your phone like your favorite stuffed animal.

Here’s what you need to hear. Stop beating yourself up. You are not lazy. You are not behind. You are not failing. You’re human.

You showed up when you wanted to hide. You answered “quick question” emails that took 2 hours to research. You ironed shoeboxes of receipts like you were back in 7^th grade Home Economics class. You ran client cryptic emails through ChatGPT to translate them. January is a sprint disguised as a month. You just ran it.

Let's make a deal. Retire the “try harder” plan. It is not a strategy. It is a guilt workout.

The real secret to working harder? Subtract friction  

Friction looks like constant task switching, unclear priorities, work restarting three times before it finishes once. It looks like checking email between every task. It looks like stopping mid-close to answer a client’s "urgent" text. It looks like reopening workpapers because someone added one more attachment.

Research backs up what your nervous system already knows. The American Psychological Association cites research showing that switching between tasks costs as much as 40 percent of your productive time. That is not a small leak. That is a full-time job. I don’t need another job!

Gloria Mark’s work on interruptions puts a number on the pain. In a Gallup interview about her research, she reported interrupted work resumed on average in 23 minutes and 15 seconds. One interruption is not the problem. Ten interruptions is your whole morning.

Trying harder does not fix this. Trying harder often makes it worse. You cram more tasks into the same day. You bounce between them faster. The clock hits 5:00 p.m. Everything is unfinished.

More hours do not save you either. Busy season teaches a dangerous lesson: “More hours equals more progress.” John Pencavel’s analysis of output and working hours shows a nonlinear relationship. Output rises with hours, then rises more slowly, then flattens. The practical takeaway is blunt: after about 50 hours, productivity drops sharply. Beyond 55 hours? Little gain. At 70 hours, why bother.

Your brain already knows this. At hour 62, you do not produce genius. You produce Typos. Errors. Regrets.

Ok Deb, I hear you. What do you suggest? What’s a different approach?

Here’s what I did. I stopped asking, “How do I work more?” Instead I asked, “What system makes this easier?”

Working smarter is not a motivational poster. It is design. It is the decisions you make when you are calm, so you do not make them when you are fried.

5 working smarter shifts you can use in your firm (even if you are a team of one)

1. Define “done” before you start.

Most rework starts with a fuzzy finish line. Before you touch a file, write one sentence defining done. Example: “Bank rec completed through January 31, open items documented, client questions sent in one email.” Now you work the plan instead of wandering the work.

2. Batch your interruptions on purpose.

You do not need a zero-interruption life. You need a controlled one. Pick two times a day for email. If something is truly urgent, call or text. If it is not urgent, it waits. You will feel twitchy at first. That is your habit leaving your body.

3. Put a cap on work in progress.

When you start too many things, everything slows down. You create handoffs, gaps, rework. Set a cap: two active jobs per person. If something new comes in, pause one job, document the stopping point, start the new one. You protect quality and you finish more.

4. Standardize the repeatable parts.

If you do something more than twice, build a template. Close checklists. Client onboarding. Tax prep packages. Monthly client questions. Even your “please stop sending screenshots of your bank balance” email. Standardization is not boring. It is a relief plan.

5. Turn compliance into high-value moments.

You cannot eliminate compliance. It’s our DNA. You stop letting it run your life. Add one small advisory output that does not explode your workload. Try a monthly “What changed” note: one movement, one recommendation, one next step. Clients remember clarity. They forget PDFs.

One more move that pays off fast: create a “Triage Lane”  

In January, everything feels urgent. In February, you get to choose. Set one channel for real emergencies. Define what counts. Payroll file error today. Bank account fraud alert. Client cannot process invoices. Those go in the lane. Everything else goes to the next email window. When you name the lane, you stop treating every ping like a fire.

You now lead your clients. Most clients do not want instant replies. They want reliable replies. Tell them your response windows. Put it in onboarding. Put it in your email signature during close week. You are not being difficult. You are being predictable.

A February reset you can actually follow

Pick one outcome for each day. Write your definition of done. Block 60 to 90 minutes for your highest-value work before you open email. Batch messages twice a day. Standardize one process this week, not ten.

You do not need a bigger whip. You need a better design.