What Did You Remove to Make Room for Work?

When you become a partner in public accounting, more responsibilities compete for your attention. Making room for them can be necessary. But before you give something up, ask whether it is a distraction or a part of your life you genuinely value.

Improving performance starts with examining what gets in the way. It also means being clear about what you want to preserve.

The Lawn I Stopped Mowing

When I became a partner, I started removing things from my life that I felt I no longer had time for. I needed more space to sell work, review workpapers, attend meetings, and do all the things partners do.

One of the first things to go was mowing the lawn. I hired a landscaper. I would come home on a Friday afternoon to a pristine lawn, perhaps better than I would have made it myself.

Then one evening, driving home, I saw the CEO of my firm mowing his own lawn. He lived in my neighborhood, so this wasn’t a reconnaissance mission. But it struck me: how did someone with so many more responsibilities still have time to do that?

It hit me that he enjoyed doing it. It was something he wanted to keep saying yes to.

Then I realized I liked mowing my lawn, too. It was one thing I could start and finish in an afternoon. It felt good, and I had taken it away from myself to make more room for work.

Performance, Potential and Interference

A coaching equation associated with Tim Gallwey’s Inner Game work offers a useful lens:

Performance = Potential − Interference

It is a conceptual model for exploring what gets in the way of performing, rather than a literal calculation. In the video I credit John Whitmore; the equation is associated with Gallwey’s work.

Performance is the result of your actions and behaviors. Potential is something to explore. Interference is what gets in the way of that exploration or the performance you want.

My lawn decision was an attempt to remove interference so I could perform better at work. The problem was that I had treated something I enjoyed as an obstacle without asking what it contributed to my life.

Be Careful About What You Call Interference

If every activity outside work becomes an obstacle to greater output, it is easy to keep removing things that matter.

Dinner with your family. Enough sleep. Coffee with your spouse. Reading for pleasure. Mowing your lawn. These may be commitments you want your career to make room for.

In the video, I call these “good interference.” The distinction I want you to consider is whether something consumes your attention without much value or belongs in the life you want to live.

The activity alone doesn’t decide it. Watching a show, playing a game or scrolling through social media might be a chosen break, or it might be a habit that takes more time than you intended. Look at how you use it and what happens as a result.

I still have Angry Birds on my phone. Good luck taking that away from me.

Take an Inventory of Your Yeses and Nos

Review what you’ve been saying yes and no to. Consider both the commitments you have kept and the things you have quietly dropped.

1. What have I given up to make more room for work? Which of those choices still make sense, and which do I miss?
2. What consumes time without giving much back? Look for habits that crowd out your priorities.
3. What do I want to keep saying yes to? Identify the relationships, interests and routines that matter to you.
4. What could I change at work? Before removing another valued activity, examine your workload, commitments, delegation and expectations.
5. What is one adjustment I can make now? Reduce one distraction or bring back one thing you value, then notice the difference.

This isn’t a rule about who should mow their lawn. Hiring someone was a perfectly reasonable option. For me, the lesson was to make that choice with a better understanding of what I was giving up.

Define the Performance You Want

You can make room to explore your potential while keeping the things that make your life meaningful. The question is what better performance should make possible for you.

What are you giving up to perform better, and is it something you actually want to give up?

Make Room for What Matters

If you’re a CPA firm partner, owner or leader, executive coaching can help you examine your commitments, clarify priorities, and explore what better performance means across your work and life. Bring a decision about what to keep, delegate, reduce or stop, and we can work through it together.

Explore coaching with The CPA Coach →

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