Are you too young to worry about work-life balance?

If you’re new to the workplace, there’s perhaps an expectation that you should be clocking in early, enduring late nights and taking lunches at your desk.

Why?

To prove your worth, with the expectation that the ‘reward’ of downtime will duly come as you move up the ranks.

While many young guns (and even seasoned veterans) are happy to jump at the opportunity to prove themselves with additional work, it begs the question: Do you need to sacrifice your personal life for the sake of your career, or is that an antiquated notion?

‘Personal hours’ and ‘work hours’ can become increasingly blurred in a new role, especially when you’re trying to make headway in your career. According to a report by Randstad, over 51 per cent of workers are now expected to answer work calls outside traditional work hours. This expectation also extends to annual leave, where 41 per cent of workers believe they should be available despite being on holiday.

How to make the most of your Mondays

Nothing sends your productivity into overdrive like getting a flying start to the week. You might think of each Monday as the ‘weekend hangover’, but it’s better to use the day as an opportunity to establish your priorities and beat your deadlines.

Whether you’re facing five days filled with client meetings or completing the last phase of a project that requires your analytical skills to be razor-sharp, here are four top tips for making the most of your Mondays.

How to build rapport with your professional colleagues

The ability to get along with your co-workers – and create long-lasting professional relationships with them – is an essential skill for all tax practitioners.

Whether you’re a recent graduate or a seasoned professional, developing positive relationships with colleagues creates a richer work environment and can help your future.

Here are four key skills that expert rapport-builders focus on to enhance their relationships with colleagues.

Instant motivation at work

Some days at work, you just don’t feel like being there. You’re lethargic, bored and unproductive. You’re also distracted easily by the most trivial, mundane occurrences.

Still, the work has to be done and the slower you go, the more it will build up.

What you need is an instant mental pick-me-up – a shot of inspiration – to help you get back on track.

Here are some ideas.

How to make better decisions

The ability to make decisions – often, quickly and well – is an attribute that can boost your career in the tax profession.

When the going gets tough, people look to the best decision-makers for solutions to problems. It’s no coincidence that the people who make the best decisions are those most likely to end up in senior leadership positions.

It’s useful to remember, however, that effective decision-makers are made, not born. Decision-making is a skill that can be developed like any other.

Here are a few techniques.

What does work-life balance mean to you?

When you’re a newcomer to the workplace, there’s sometimes an expectation that you should clock in early, endure late nights and have lunch at your desk.

Why?

To demonstrate your worth with an unspoken promise that the ‘reward’ of downtime will duly come as you move up the ranks.

While many young guns (and even seasoned veterans) are happy to jump at the opportunity to prove themselves by undertaking additional work, it begs the question: Do you need to sacrifice your personal life for the sake of your career? Or is that an antiquated notion?

How to handle difficult people in the workplace

One benefit of transitioning from university to full-time employment is the opportunity to work closely with friendly, supportive, inspiring people.

Unfortunately, you may also encounter individuals who aren’t so easy to get along with – and in the workplace, unlike at university, it’s difficult to ignore or get away from such people. You may even sit next to an unfriendly co-worker for hours each day.

Time management skills for long-term success

You may have survived university on the basis of your talent and hard work. However, you’ll need to refine your organisational skills to survive, thrive and prosper over the long term in your chosen career.

If you haven’t already embraced the fundamental principles of time management, it’s worth starting now.

Here are a few tactics for getting more done in your day-to-day work.

Your new career in tax - what to expect

If you’re an accounting or law student considering a career in tax, you no doubt anticipate a big difference between life on campus and work in the ‘real world’.

You know there’ll be a change from focusing on theory to applying your expertise pragmatically in the context of diverse client challenges.

So how can you ensure the transition from life as a full-time student to that of a full-time tax professional is as easy and pain-free as possible?

Here are a few suggestions.

Seeking help

Your first job is a key step in shaping your career. Each new experience will offer an opportunity to learn, build practical skills, establish rapport with team members and expand your taxation knowledge.

So try to pick up as much information as you can by asking questions and seeking assistance as you need it. You’ll find that most of your new colleagues will be happy to help. They’ll prefer you learn the right way at the beginning, rather than fix problems later.

Your activities

In many graduate or entry-level roles, you’re likely to be given a variety of tasks.

These might range from research and administration through to practical activities like preparing tax returns and business statements. At the same time, you may receive formal training, workplace mentoring or coaching by senior staff, as well as opportunities to attend client meetings and industry events.

These all represent a chance to establish a firm grounding in best practices for preparing work, building communication skills and understanding business etiquette and due diligence.

Learning to work and working to learn

In the early stages of a new job, you’ll be proving your worth to your new organisation. So prepare carefully, adhere to processes and ask questions if you’re not sure about something.

You’ll be learning to function as part of a team. It helps to be flexible and to see your colleagues and your manager as your partners in achieving a common goal.

Don’t despair if the work doesn't initially meet your expectations – for example, it may not be as challenging as you’d like. The sooner you learn all about the company’s clients and business, the faster you’ll be considered for advancement.

In particular, when you have the chance to attend meetings, use these experiences to learn from your colleagues. Observe how they explain issues to clients, manage expectations, set clients at ease and solve problems.

Updating your knowledge

To distinguish yourself from others in your field and ensure your career progression, it’s important to maintain a solid technical base and knowledge of tax law.

On-the-job training – and formal development programs offered by The Tax Institute and other professional bodies – are invaluable. Tax is a specialist area that’s subject to continual changes in law and practice, so continuous reading is also required to stay up to date.

Transitioning successfully from university life to the workplace is all about being prepared, taking time to understand the experiences of others in the profession, getting to know more about your organisation and your clients, and approaching every task as a learning opportunity.

Give yourself the edge with free Student Membership

If you're a tertiary education student, The Tax Institute can help you in your career journey. Find out about Student Membership.

Productivity secrets to success

Whether you’re punching deadlines or juggling coursework with an internship at a taxation firm, you’ll know that few things are as effective as squeezing the most out of your working hours.

Despite this, taking control of your time can often appear fraught with challenges of its own. Bad habits and disorganised work practices usually mean giving in to the urge to procrastinate. Luckily, there’s no shortage of secrets that can send your productivity levels sky-high. Here are a few foolproof tactics for getting more done.

The Pomodoro Technique

Invented in the 1980s by Francesco Cirillo, the Pomodoro Technique is a much-loved productivity method designed to preserve clarity and minimise mental fatigue. The technique invites people to spend 25 minutes on work and then take a five-minute break. After four Pomodoro ‘rounds’, they enjoy a longer 20-minute rest. This strategy is based on the idea that constantly timing your activities drives you to complete tasks more quickly while avoiding the temptation to waste time. It also uses regular work-free intervals to keep motivation intact.

Trello

If you’re juggling multiple commitments, it’s easy to feel swamped by your tasks. That’s why Trello – an easy-to-use app that lets you create ‘boards’ for every project, track to-do items and collaborate with other team members – is a godsend if you’re serious about upping your productivity. Trello also offers total visibility of your projects and allows you to understand your progress at every stage. This makes it easier than ever to allocate your time.

The Cornell System

Ever found yourself sitting in an accounting class bombarded by information you need to record? The Cornell System can work wonders for your efficiency. The system invites you to jot down big-picture ideas, embrace abbreviations and use a ‘recall column’ to list specific words and phrases. It’s a powerful note-taking strategy that lets you capture essential information without needing to fill in the gaps in the future.

Schedule your most important tasks first

Few time-management tactics are as effective as getting your critical tasks accomplished first. If you schedule your most pressing responsibilities for the start of the day, there’s less chance of squandering time on admin and non-urgent work. It will also ensure your workday is in line with your priorities.

From project management apps to scheduling habits, there are countless ways to chase away distractions and optimise your hours. What are your tried-and-tested productivity secrets?


Take the next step in your tax career with the Graduate Diploma of Applied Tax Law 

Find out more  

Is work-life balance really needed so early in your career?

As a newcomer to the workplace, there’s perhaps an expectation that you should be clocking in early, enduring late nights and taking lunches at your desk. Why? To prove your worth on the proviso that the ‘reward’ of downtime will duly come as you move up the ranks.

While many young guns (and even seasoned veterans) are happy to jump at the opportunity to prove themselves with additional work, it begs the question: do you need to sacrifice your personal life for the sake of your career, or is that an antiquated notion?

‘Personal hours’ and ‘work hours’ can become increasingly blurred in a new role, especially when you are trying to make headway. According to a report issued by Randstad, over 51 per cent of workers are now expected to answer work calls outside of traditional work hours. This expectation also extends to annual leave, where 41 per cent of workers believe they should be available despite their holiday status.

But does being available and ‘on call’ make you a better worker?

The same report found that if there was a greater expectation on employees to work beyond traditional hours, the likelihood of them also dealing with personal matters at work would increase. It also suggested that the difference between strictly work and personal matters was now obscured because of the intrusiveness of technology like social media. So work-life balance (or lack thereof) could actually interfere with your working productivity more than you might think.

The case for work-life balance

Contrary to the work ethos that many seniors expect of young recruits, according to a recent study by HR Magazine, two in five junior-level employees actually believe that maintaining a healthy work-life balance helps them work more productively.

While this doesn’t necessarily mean set-in-stone hours should be the only option, it does encourage the belief that your routine work hours should comfortably and healthily fit into your overall ‘life’ schedule – no matter which rung of the career ladder you are on.

According to the same study, a larger portion of junior workers would prefer to mix their personal and work lives, while this was only true across a substantially smaller cross-section of senior managers and directors. So while you may be interested in networking and consider this an out-of-hours activity, such a mantra might be difficult to encourage among senior employees who consider this activity to be an additional ‘in-hours’ operation.

The solution

Work-life balance is about creating and maintaining supportive and healthy work environments, which should in turn strengthen employee retention as well as their productivity on the job. While for younger employees this might include activities such as networking, older employees are interested in seeing quantitative results. As with most things in life, moderation is key, so it’s a balancing act between what is expected of you as a new recruit and which tactics will most impress your new employers.

Work-life balance is the first step to having a tax career that soars. While certain parts of the year will call for overtime, it’s important to keep it all in perspective. And if you ever find yourself feeling overwhelmed, be sure to communicate your situation to your manager.


Give yourself the edge with free Student Membership

If you are a tertiary education student, The Tax Institute can help you progress in your career journey.

Find out about Student Membership.

Making the most of your Monday

Nothing sends your productivity into overdrive like getting a flying start to the week. Although you might classify Mondays as the ‘weekend hangover’, it’s better to use the day as an opportunity to establish your priorities and beat your deadlines. Whether you’re facing five days filled with client meetings or the last phase of a project that requires your analytical skills to be razor-sharp, here are four top tips for making the most of your Monday.

Get an early start

There is a directly proportional relationship between waking up early and getting the most out of your day. According to recent research, those with a tendency to wake up early were found to feel happier, more productive and energetic than those who rose at an average time – a finding that can work wonders for productivity. From avoiding caffeine after midday to bringing your alarm forward, there’s plenty you can do to rise early on a Monday and prepare yourself for the week.

Factor exercise into your schedule

Do you find yourself spending long hours hunched over reading documents or staring at spreadsheets on a screen? Making exercise part of your Monday schedule can supercharge your concentration levels and help you focus on the task at hand. Whether you attend an early-morning yoga class before commuting to the office or swapping the train to cycle or walk into work, upping your endorphin levels after the weekend can make you more efficient in the days to come.

Build a buffer into your diary

We’ve all arrived at work on a Monday only to find there’s been an issue with a client’s financials or an obstacle that will delay a project. But setting aside time to troubleshoot on a Monday – even if it turns out you don’t need it – can help you sail into Tuesday calm, cool and prepared.

Prioritise the week’s most important tasks

When you’re staring at a week shaped by round-the-clock deadlines, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. Unfortunately, this can give rise to the kind of reactive mindset that can create stress during the next five days. On Monday morning, spend some time looking at your diary, re-evaluating your goals and prioritising the week’s most important tasks. That way, you know when you’re hitting your professional targets and can change your course when you start to drift.

From fast-tracking your wake-up call to setting aside time to resolve issues that will inevitably arise, committing to making the most of your Monday can work wonders throughout the week. What do you do to get the most out of your Monday?

A successful career in tax will change your life. Figure out your aspirations and start taking action today.


Take the next step in your tax career with the Graduate Diploma of Applied Tax Law 

Find out more