How To Make Yourself (And Your FIRE Plan) A Priority

I’m a self-employed CPA struggling with the R in Fire. Financially I have the means to retire and I have been saying “no” to prospective new clients. I can’t believe it’s so hard to prioritize restructuring my business to free up my time. I’m always tackling client affairs and mine go on the back burner. Making myself priority #1, is tough!

I’m not looking to retire 100% at this point but I do want to deal less with daily deadlines and move my practice towards more fulfilling work like showing others how to financially FIRE. I need some kind of impetus to get myself to prioritize attaining my goals over responding to client needs first. Any suggestions?

– Carolyn

If you enjoy your work like Carolyn does, it’s easy to take on more and more of it without realizing you’re overdoing it. But invariably there will be deadlines that don’t always coincide with your ideal schedule. Or, you’ll find yourself busier than you’d like to be. Or, as Carolyn mentioned, you say Yes to enough things that it crowds out other fulfilling work you’d like to do. You might have achieved FI but don’t follow through on the RE part.

I also enjoy what I do in the career space, and my clients have fascinating issues to deal with:

• A couple of clients are in final rounds for the biggest job of their career – how exciting!
• Several organizational clients are focused on increasing diversity in their workforce – how meaningful!
• Most of my clients are making a significant career pivot – being a multiple time career-changer myself, I am all for that!

When I was just starting my business in 2008, I routinely worked seven days a week. Truthfully, it was only partially because I was still building up the business. Another part was that I truly enjoyed having the work as a part of my day, so I would default to it over other things. Finally, I didn’t set up enough boundaries and structures for myself so one day just bled into the next.

Eventually I burned out and found myself at a career plateau. It was when I wanted to do more traveling and other passion projects that I needed to overhaul my schedule and not just work whenever I felt like it (which seemed to be most of the time). Simultaneously, I had to manage my clients’ expectations on how and when we would interact because I was no longer going to be as available.

It took some trial and error to see what worked for me but here are the three things that helped me pare down my work schedule so my life could feel more like retirement than work:

1 – Decide in advance how much work you’ll accept – and stick to that

I have always prioritized variety in my work so my engagements are designed to be short. Even if I have an ongoing assignment, I build in a two- or four-week notice so that I can terminate without too much transition time. (The client can do terminate too, and I sell this option as increased flexibility!) I never had to end things abruptly with a client. But even if you have longer engagements, give them a lot of notice. Refer other people who can do the work, and help with the transition.

In the meantime, as I rolled off existing projects, I also stopped taking on as many. I had a good sense for how long each of my engagements would really take because I keep a meticulous Time Diary that tracks my time. I decided in advance how many hours I wanted to work, and then as opportunities arose I could calculate whether or not I had enough time. In the winter, I chose to work more because I was in a cold weather city and knew I wouldn’t be out much anyway. But in the summer, I purposely slowed down. Start a waiting list if you have to, but don’t take on more than whatever number of clients or projects you restrict yourself to.

2 – Block off specific times when clients can reach you

I like to write on weekends, and I tend to do my financials on weekends, which overlaps life and work, but otherwise I don’t do anything else. I also don’t put Monday or Friday slots in my online scheduler, making it easier to take a four-day weekend when I want to. Finally, I slot in my exercise time a month in advance so it doesn’t get crowded out by other appointments.

I know another coach who blocks off one week per month and takes on no meetings that week (I tried that, and I found that I preferred Monday and Friday off). Another coach only sees clients Tuesday through Thursday. Still another coach never meets before 11a for the purpose of reserving his most alert hours for other things. If you minimize when clients can reach you, this may make it easier to diminish your client work over time (just keep increasing your out-of-office time!).

3 – Preemptively say Yes to non-work things

What really got me disciplined about working less and excited to stick to my boundaries and rules was when I found specific things I wanted to do with that client time. When our real estate and travel activities picked up, I had a clear choice between these activities and taking on an additional career-related project. It was easier for me to say No to the career stuff when I had already said Yes to things I was really excited about. I’m still sad about an interesting, five-figure recruiting project I turned down several years ago, but I also still talk about the two-week trip we took to the south of France instead.

If you’re the kind of person who reflexively says Yes and agrees to do more than you planned, crowding out your calendar with other commitments is an effective way to break that habit. You’re still a committed person but you have already committed to non-work things. If your other commitments are structured – e.g., a book club with aggressive reading deadlines, guitar lessons with a live instructor – then you have accountability built-in. If you’re pursuing something solo – say, you’re teaching yourself guitar – then buddy up with someone who also has a goal and be each other’s accountability partner.

How did you slow down after years of work first?

Committing to other things, blocking off Mondays and Fridays and setting a clear limit on how many projects I accepted were the three things that worked for me.

Did I miss something that worked for you?