Too many tabs open?
Erin Morton
ACCA Audit Expert Tutor ?? Audit Tutor and mentor ?????? PQ Award Winner - Online College of the Year ??
I am having one of those weeks. There are lots of balls juggling in the air and I must not drop any.
There will be lots of you also feeling the same. Many people juggling work commitments, family issues, and then add studying for exams to the mix.
When life gets like this, we need to react. How can we stay calm and win? My only approach is to plan. I am a natural planner. Transfer the tabs from my brain into something visual. Make a list. Create a mind map. Prioritise what is the most important. Then start working through that list. I have an awfully long list, BUT if I take one task at a time, it will get shorter.
We must also be kind to ourselves. Make sure you do not fix the list. Make it flexible as things are changing all the time. Auditors have a detailed plan at the beginning of the audit process. They set materiality early on and design audit procedures, BUT if events change, and more information comes to light that changes the conclusions reached, they go back to the plan and adapt it. They do not carry on with the original conclusions. This would lead to a poor-quality audit and possibly the wrong opinion made on whether the financial statements are true and fair.
I now have one of my children back at home self-isolating due to a classmate testing positive with COVID-19. This has impacted on my plan. It will slow me down slightly, but I will put one foot in front of the other and react so that I still win.
How do you deal with having too many tabs open?
Leadership Coach and Trainer, ACCA SBL Expert, TV Host
4 年That's a great question Erin. I use my Outlook calendar to plan the day, leaving sufficient time to focus on a particular project for an extended period of time. And then (and this is the hardest bit), ignore my Inbox for the duration.
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4 年Lists help. I could do with doing lists for outside of working life. Btw thats a neat looking notebook. Would sell well.
Treasury/finance professional educator in online environments. Course author and professional body marker. Ex examiner. Operator/owner of a suite of online education platforms.
4 年I use a simple word doc to maintain my to-do list (yes, with lots of colours for prioritisation!), and when I've completed a task I move the task to the 'completed' section of my document (which starts on about page 3 at the moment). So my 'to do' list becomes an 'achieved' list .. which is really useful for writing job descriptions etc. and frankly helps remind me that I really am taking steps forward. I'm sure there are better tools out there, but I subscribe to KISS ...
ACCA SBR online lecturer helping students pass exams | former marker & examiner | x3 PQ award winner | podcaster
4 年I am a planner and a juggler too. I find my mind is rested by writing a to do list. That means my brain can rest knowing all those important things won’t be forgotten. My wife Jenny says that I even “plan my spontaneity”!
This is encouraging, thanks Erin Morton