A Better Kind of Creative Accounting: A PICPA Blog Series

By James J. Caruso, CPA (inactive)

In the first installment of this new blog series, I discussed how accountants – contrary to public (and often our own) opinion – are, in fact, creative. Authors, musicians, painters, actors, and dancers are more traditionally thought of as “creatives,” but this is only because they happen to be experts in the creative process. In this post, I will talk about one element of the creative process that accountants can easily adopt: personal rituals.

As professionals in the accounting and finance arena, we often default to rationality and logic. We can fail to appreciate the effects of psychology. This can be seen in how we often approach the grind of work by searching for motivation. In reality, discipline is actually more important than motivation. Motivation is a feeling, and we will not always feel like doing the things we need to do. Discipline, on the other hand, is what we need to overcome resistance and procrastination and get our minds in gear to deal with complicated problems or tedious work. That doesn’t mean it has to be sheer force of will. We can trick ourselves into being ready to do difficult work. There are psychological games we can play to help us get “unstuck,” to get in the mood to do something we don’t feel like doing, to shift our mindset and refocus our mental energy. In fact, with all the distraction and context-switching we often face, our minds need a way to switch to the subject at hand, concentrate, and do deep work. A personal ritual can kick-start a focused work session.

Rituals are one psychological tool we have at our disposal. A boxer wraps his hands before a fight. A runner laces up her shoes before a run. These examples are of things they have to do – a boxer needs to wrap his hands, a runner needs to put her shoes on – but they become familiar, comfortable routines. They soon become preambles to the activity that follows and help get their minds in the right mode for what’s to come.

Any routine can have the same benefit, even if it has no direct relationship to what’s to come. Lots of athletes have little unnecessary routines they perform to get their minds in gear before they take the field. You might even call them superstitions, but they work!

I have read about a well-known creative whose ritual was to walk the same path every day before sitting down to work. For finance professionals like us, it could be a short walk around the office, or it could be making a cup of coffee or tea, or even filling up a water flask. It could be clearing off your desk and sitting down with a favorite pen and a fresh sheet of paper. It could be turning down the lights and putting on a desk lamp. It could be moving to another location to focus on a complex problem – a different desk, a small conference room, even a coffee shop – maybe without a computer so you can brainstorm freely on paper. Whatever it is, if you do it enough times and make it a routine the ritual act will shift your mind into focus mode.

A ritual, such as those mentioned above or some other you come up with, is not just for the start of the workday. It is for any time you need to refocus and get things done. It does not even have to be exclusively for deep work – it can be a ritual that you use before starting some repetitive administrative tasks that you don’t particularly like. You can have different rituals for different situations. Rituals are also useful any time you need to switch between distinct “modes” of work. As a personal example, I enjoy the energy and engagement of collaborating and meeting with others, but it is hard for me to abruptly switch from doing that to sitting in front of a computer to concentrate on a spreadsheet. Rituals help me put space between the dissimilar types of work and make the necessary transition.

A ritual that you enjoy can help you look forward to a work session that you otherwise might shrink from, because you can now associate the work with a pleasing ritual – just make sure the ritual itself does not become a new excuse to procrastinate.

James J. Caruso, CPA (inactive), is the CFO of ClearView Healthcare Partners of Newton, Mass., and a member of the Pennsylvania CPA Journal Editorial Board. He can be reached at jim.caruso@clearviewhcp.com.

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^{Statements of fact and opinion are the authors’ responsibility alone and do not imply an opinion on the part of the PICPA's officers or members. The information contained herein does not constitute accounting, legal, or professional advice. For actionable advice, you must engage or consult with a qualified professional.}