No, these aren’t just “part of the job” in accounting firms.
These issues are what happens when context switching goes too far.
That’s right, we’re hinting at a truth that’s a bit unpopular to admit: Some context switching is a requirement for knowledge workers today. It’s just not plausible for a single tool to handle every single thing that accountants need to do.
The problems come when it runs rampant.
When context switching isn’t addressed, it has implications for the health of businesses and workers.
Context switching — or multitasking, task toggling, etc. — occurs when you interrupt working on one task to perform another task.
In the workplace, context switching is often the result of needing to move between different applications to find the information you need to complete your original task. You may also switch contexts in the middle of a task to answer a chat, read an email, or attend a meeting.
Think about sending a month-end report to a client and catching a transaction that seems inconsistent. Is it a coding error? Something your client needs to clarify? Gotta hop out of the report and shoot off an email. While you’re there, you might as well answer the messages that have piled up. Half-way through a reply — ping! — you got an email back from the client. Time to check that really quickly. Finally, you can make a little progress on that report. But first, have to log into QuickBooks or Xero and make that correction…
If that all seems quite exhausting, that’s because it is. And if it sounds all too familiar, that’s not surprising at all.
Context switching is more prevalent than ever because of the way technology has become part of our lives and our workplaces.
On average, workers today find themselves spending more time using email, more time participating in video calls, and more time multitasking. And, the pressure is on to respond immediately to notifications.
As business reliance on tech continues to grow, the need to switch between tons of tools and tasks may become even more intense. Employees and businesses that don’t have any tactics for minimizing switching and its impact are going to feel the pain.
Yes, in the bookkeeping space you’re likely going to need to swap between at least a few different platforms in a day to get your job done.
But, completely unfettered context switching happens way too often. In fact, close to half (43%) of workers report dedicating too much time to switching between company tools and apps.
If that’s just as true at your firm as it is at many, here’s the “tax” you may be paying if unhindered context switching continues.
Deep Work Gets Deprioritized
Deep work, characterized by immersing ourselves in meaningful work challenges, is where we truly hone our skills and create valuable output.
Unfortunately, having to move between different tools to get anything done introduces interruptions that don’t allow for work to go deep.
An observation of one consumer goods company found that workers used 22 different applications, and switched between them 350 times, to complete a single transaction.
When that’s the state of your workplace, there’s no space left for the deep work and concentration that leads to creativity and groundbreaking ideas.
Loss of Critical Business Knowledge
Considering that 56% of workers report difficulty keeping track of business data across different apps and that they actually have to ask more than one person for help finding information — there’s no way business knowledge is being used to its full potential when it comes to client communications and making decisions that impact the future of your business.
Fatigue + Stress = Burnout
It’s really no surprise that 43% of workers report it’s tiring to have to move back and forth between apps, screens, and conversations at a fast pace all the time.
But context switching isn’t just physically taxing, it’s also mentally taxing. Science tells us that switching between tasks takes a toll on our cognitive abilities. And, it can even cause the brain to produce the stress hormone cortisol.
Fatigue and stress in the workplace is a perfect recipe for burnout. That’s a big deal because burnout is one of the top reasons why employees leave jobs.
Collaboration and Connection Flounder
The best solutions arise when diverse teams full of varying perspectives are able to collaborate.
However, heavy tech reliance and context switching stress makes people feel less and less connected. Close to two-thirds (62%) of workers miss being able to collaborate with their colleagues. When tooling becomes so distracting it’s actually hurting workplace culture, is it actually serving you?
If you’re ready to cut out some of the email back-and-forth and adopt one app to streamline your workflows, it’s time to try bookkeeping practice management software like Keeper.
Keeper helps automate and streamline bookkeeping and accounting workflows, unite data, and make collaboration simpler both internally and with clients.
Using Keeper’s branded Client Portal gives you a single channel to manage all client comms and get responses faster without having to switch between emails, phone calls, and texts. Smart file review tools quickly catch coding errors and integrate your workflows directly with QuickBooks and Xero, so you only need to correct files in one location for a cleaner and faster close.
And, when you are done with the review, Keeper makes it easy to craft useful reports clients actually like reading. Stay on top of all these moving parts with Keeper’s task management functionality, where you can create flows and make sure you and your team are performing at peak productivity.
At Keeper, we make it easy to actually work in your workflow software, minimizing the number of apps you need to pivot between over the course of a productive day.
