april2021 - 22

THE MILLENNIAL ADVISOR
What To Do Next? Too Many Options
HAVE YOU EVER been to the grocery store already stressed, just looking for a simple jar
of pasta sauce - only to find an isle filled with more options and choices than you are
prepared to face nor think about? We all have felt overwhelmed by the grip of confusion
that comes with facing too many options, whether it is as consumers in the marketplace
figuring out what to buy, or individuals trying to make change happen in our daily lives.
Since we all feel this same way,
it is time that we find a better way
to deal with options and provide a
clear process that we can all use
to take the added stress out of our
already stressful lives. We all know
the pain of having too many choices
and being paralyzed, unsure which
one to choose. Let's learn how to make
decision making easier.

EVALUATING THE IDEA
The key to taking the confusion away
is to pragmatically evaluate the ideas
you are faced with. We will review the
three simple steps you need to take in
order to see the solution. The first step
is to list all of the options out in front of
you. For accounting firms in the spring
of each year, that means post-busy
season changes. Sometimes that list
of changes is daunting, resulting in
inaction. Instead, start with simply
gathering that list by requesting input
from everyone involved - this is the
easy collaborative part. Once the
list has been created it is time to get
serious.

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APRIL 2021 ■

REVIEWING THE IMPACT
The next step is to go through your list
and identify what impact each change
will have, from a scale of zero [no
impact] to ten [monumental impact].
Think through each item on your list,
and review what making this change
can specifically mean for you, your
firm, or your team. For example, the
option to stop returning any individual
tax return source documents, and
instead opt to have them available
upon request, may be a 7 in impact
to one firm, yet be a 9 in impact to
another firm based on their clientele.
The important part is not what the
" right " number is, but what the right
number is for you. As a final part to
this step, review your list and make
sure once everything is ranked, they
all fall in a logical order. Make sure to
take a step back at the end and take
an overview of your hard work and
recognize what you've accomplished.

GIVING THE EFFORT
Now that you know what each change
will mean and how it will impact you,

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it is time to really think about how
much effort each of the items on your
list will take. Just as before, we will
rank these from zero [no effort] to
ten [maximum effort]. The goal here
is to think about what it will take
from you and others to make this
change happen. Sticking with our
example above, the effort is takes
to not send source documents back
to your clients when the returns are
done is extremely low. It takes more
work to send the documents back than
it does to keep them. As a side note,
we stopped sending the client source
documents back when the pandemic
began, and now a year later, no one is
asking for these documents anymore,
and few care to inquire about getting
them back. With this step, put some
honest thought into the effort it will
take to address the item, as it will
pay-off later down the line.

MAKING A CHOICE
Finally with our created list, ranked
both by the impact and the effort, it
is time to do a little graphic layout.
On the X-axis you will want to put
the impact scale, and on the Y-axis
you'll put the effort scale. Then fire
up Excel to graph out the results. The
most interesting thing about doing this
exercise is reviewing the results. The
whole goal of this process is to lay out
your options into one of four quadrants
that makes comparability much easier
and thus makes your decision making
process much simpler.
Quadrant 1 - Go - High impact
and low effort - in other words, they
will make major change happen with
little effort. There's no reason to put

GARRETT WAGNER, CPA

CEO/Founder, C3 Evolution Group
garrett.wagner@cpapracticeadvisor.com

off doing these items. Don't wait for
another year to pass - make these
changes happen now; they are your
easy wins and offer large success.
Quadrant 2 - Wait - Low impact
and low effort. In this case, even
though they are low effort, making
this change won't make much happen,
so unless you have nothing else to do
with your time (this is most likely not
the case), hold off on these or delegate
them down to anyone with additional
capacity.
Quadrant 3 - Further Investigation - High impact and high effort.
Before you try and do one of these
items, you need to really commit to
them. Before you start on any of these
items, you need to make sure you have
done everything in quadrant one, and
then prioritize which of these major
tasks is most necessary.
Quadrant 4 - Insanity - Low
impact and high effort. These should
be the last things you choose to do,
ever. The idea of doing one of these is
so crazy, I'm not even going to write
any more about why you should avoid
them.
As you move past the end of
another busy season and look to take
further steps to improve your firm
or your life, stop being overwhelmed
by options and the decision-making
process. Follow these steps to take the
guess work out of what you need to do.
Don't waste your time and energy on
pointless tasks. Come out of the season
and into the second half of the year
stronger than ever before by tackling
all your quadrant one items and score
a win for the future. ■
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april2021

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