Tax Season 2026 Blog Series [6/10] – 10 Ways to Be Insanely Productive During Tax Season

Tax season is here! IRS has announced that the tax-filing will begin on January 26, 2026, and the filing deadline to submit tax returns is April 15, 2025.

In previous posts from our Tax Season 2026 blog series, we shared tips and suggestions on how to prepare for tax season, what documents to keep ready, how to protect data and privacy, common mistakes to avoid, and how cloud technology can help make tax filing faster and more secure.

Continuing the series, this post focuses on how accounting professionals can make better use of their time, increase productivity, and manage higher workloads during this busy and stressful tax season.

There are only two ways to increase output: work longer hours or work smarter. During tax season, relying solely on longer hours often leads to exhaustion and burnout. Tax season can become stressful when time is not managed effectively.

According to a Survey, about 64% of Americans say tax-filing is “stressful” for them. High stress levels often reduce focus, productivity, and overall job satisfaction, making it harder to perform at your best during the busy season.

Let’s explore some practical ways to improve productivity during the busiest weeks of the tax season.

1. Get Organized: The Plan

Planning in advance helps you work faster and stay organized. Unexpected interruptions and multitasking often take more time than expected, causing stress and missed deadlines.

Tracking and defining how much time you spend on different tasks and planning your day in advance can significantly improve productivity. Tools such as RescueTime can help in understanding how much time you spend daily on your habits and daily tasks, such as social media, emails, entertainment, and other apps.

People also spend a lot of time doing multitasking; be it working on a presentation, writing an email, reading news, or talking to colleagues at the same time. But in reality, working on more than one thing at a time reduces their focus and performance at work.

By switching from multi-tasking to single-tasking you might even increase your team’s overall productivity by 31%.

It’s always better to handle lengthy and tougher tasks when you are most alert, which could be morning time or the time after a break. There are a ton of tools, such as Evernote, that can help you plan your day in advance by organizing and prioritizing things to do.

If you are a CPA firm, mapping your process, identifying and documenting every step involved, can help you better organize your work and boost the overall firm’s productivity. Web-based workflow management tools such as Trello can help you set up and monitor tasks by keeping all staff and clients in the same place.

2. Update Your Technology

Tax season is the best time to upgrade your technology, which enables employees to accomplish more in less time. It also ensures that you would not face any difficulty or disruption while using your IT assets during tax-filing work.

Productivity can be increased only if you are using the right technology, from automatic bill pay to preparing and filing taxes for your clients.

Make sure you run the latest operating systems and keep desktop software such as MS Office, QuickBooks, Lacerte, and Chrome fully updated. This is also a good time to replace outdated or faulty hardware like keyboards, printers, or slow computers, as delays caused by poor equipment affect the entire team.

Adding the right hardware can also make a measurable difference. Adding a dual-screen setup allows accountants to review documents, enter data, and cross-check information simultaneously without constantly switching windows.

A high-speed, reliable internet connection that is available 24×7 is equally important. Faster connectivity makes it easier to access cloud-based applications, transfer large files, and use web-based accounting tools without interruptions. As a result, teams can collaborate more effectively, especially when working remotely.

Using cloud accounting software or hosting your tax software or desktop accounting application such as, QuickBooks in the cloud, enables you to work securely from anywhere, anytime on your accounting data with enhanced security.

Plus, it facilitates better collaboration with your clients because they can see the changes and work done in real-time without the need for sending files back and forth over email.

Another technology that you must have for your accounting firm in this tax season is unified communication, or VoIP. While there are many communication methods, such as emails or phone calls, clients may prefer other channels, such as video calls.

VoIP technology facilitates video calls, voice calls, eFax, virtual PBX, and other cloud communication services that enable fast and effective communication with clients.

3. Take Regular Breaks

People are aware that taking breaks helps refresh their mood, focus better on work, and keep their energy level high. Research shows that those who have a brief diversion from a task perform better than those who just keep at it without a break.

So how can you take breaks without delay in work and break your focus from work? Here’s how:

• In your daily calendar, identify the opportunities for a break at work.
• Follow the Rule of 52 and 17, in which you work for 52 minutes at a time, then take a break of 17 minutes before getting back to work.
• Organize your desk and keep everything in the right place because the messiness will slow you down when finding tax-related papers, files, or other important office stuff.
• During the break, grab a coffee, take a walk, eat something healthy, listen to music, or do some exercise.

If you are a CPA or an accounting firm, make sure you have sufficient breaks for your employees in your working policy so that they are always productive with their actions and behavior.

4. Reward Your Top Achievers

There is a clear link between employee appreciation and its impact on their engagement with your business and productivity at work. According to Globoforce, 78% of employees would work harder if their efforts were better recognized and appreciated.

Set up an employee reward and recognition policy in your accounting firm to create a positive company culture, an inspiring workplace, and make employees feel valued and appreciated.

Identify the top achievers in your accounting firm by answering some of these questions:

• How much time do they spend on a particular task or a client’s work?
• How much help do they need to get the work done?
• What kind of and how much business are they bringing in?
• Do they have the responsibility to help others?
• Do they participate in the collaborative process?

Always reward the right thing that aligns with your firm’s mission and encourages hard work and team collaboration.

Praise for their good work, add new responsibilities, add some people such as Interns or new staff to teach and manage them, offer benefit packages or goodies like thoughtful holiday gifts to motivate them, and recognize their efforts in this tax season.

5. Turn off Notifications – All of Them

Admittedly, everyone is constantly busy with their smartphone notifications; be it social media updates, new likes or comments on Facebook, email alerts, or office chats, which distract you from a particular task. For example, it almost seems difficult to write an email without being interrupted by a Facebook notification or a WhatsApp message.

According to research by Deloitte, people look at their phones 47 times a day, which shows how smartphones can divert their attention. In addition, Karbon’s study shows that accountants send and receive around 100 to 200 emails every day, making email one of the biggest productivity drainers during tax season.

So, how are you supposed to focus on this busy tax season with all the notifications calling for your attention? Here is how.

• Set two or three time blocks in a day when you will check your social media notifications and activity.
• Check and respond to emails at a certain time or time block you’ve assigned for emails, not all day long.
• Use color coding or email labels to quickly identify urgent messages, and unsubscribe from promotional or non-essential emails.
• Use break times to call or connect with friends, family, and loved ones.
• Use tools such as Offtime and Flipd to set time blocks and manage notifications. Offtime can categorize alerts as “work” or “family.”
• Use headphones and listen to light music to increase focus and maintain productivity during deep work sessions.

6. Prioritize High-Value Advisory Work

During tax season, it is easy to get caught up in urgent but low-value tasks like emails or routine administrative work. Instead, focus on tasks that create the most impact, such as providing advisory services that strengthen client relationships.

Client expectations are also rising. In fact, 83 percent of accountants say clients expect more from them today than they did just two years ago. Meeting these expectations requires moving beyond compliance work and spending more time understanding client goals, challenges, and long-term plans.

Consciously prioritize work based on value, not convenience or emotional avoidance. Shifting attention from compliance-heavy or repetitive tasks to advisory work allows you to connect with clients, understand their goals, and provide personalized guidance. This “empathetic work” builds trust and encourages long-term client retention.

Leverage technology, including AI, to automate routine administrative tasks. Reducing these low-value activities frees up time to concentrate on meaningful work where expertise truly makes a difference.

7. Streamline Client Onboarding

Client communication, especially around document requests and status updates, can consume excessive time during tax season. Gathering necessary information can take one to two days, or even weeks, if the process is unclear. Developing a structured onboarding workflow helps reduce confusion, sets expectations, and ensures clients know what to do and when.

• Gather information efficiently: Quickly collect client details and documents using a structured process.
• Set expectations and timelines: Outline key deadlines and deliverables upfront to minimize back-and-forth communication.
• Provide a welcome guide: Share a one-page guide or short video explaining the tax season process, common questions, and useful resources.
• Automate onboarding steps: Use tools for engagement letters, client portal setup, and reminders to ensure seamless client engagement.
• Train clients on processes: Educate clients on how to work with the firm’s systems, reducing manual follow-ups and confusion.

A streamlined onboarding process reduces client anxiety, prevents the use of multiple disconnected tools, and improves their overall experience. It also frees accountants to focus on higher-value tasks instead of chasing documents.

8. Batch Tasks

Constantly switching between emails, client queries, and tax work can slow you down during tax season. Instead of responding to messages as they arrive, group similar tasks and handle them in dedicated time blocks. For example, set specific periods for replying to emails or reviewing notifications rather than addressing them throughout the day.

Apply the same approach to high-focus work. Schedule uninterrupted blocks of time for tasks like reviewing tax documents or preparing returns. This allows your brain to focus on one type of work at a time, reducing mental fatigue and improving efficiency. Batching tasks helps create a smoother workflow, which is essential during a fast-paced tax season.

9. Streamline Workflows with Practice Management Software

Practice management software helps accounting teams handle tax season efficiently by creating clear, structured workflows. Organize returns and client tasks into sequential stages, such as:

• Document collection – gather all client files in one centralized location.
• Data entry – input financial information accurately and consistently.
• Tax preparation – complete returns efficiently without unnecessary delays.
• Quality control – review work thoroughly before submission.

The software can automatically move tasks to the next stage once clients upload all required documents. It can also send reminders to clients for any missing information and notify preparers as soon as a return is ready for review.

Additionally, it also provides a centralized view of all client work, deadlines, and task statuses, allowing managers and team members to prioritize high-value work, identify potential delays early, and allocate resources effectively. Implementing structured workflows through practice management software improves focus, increases productivity, and ensures a smoother, more organized tax season for both staff and clients.

10. Use a Client Success Manager (CSM)

A Client Success Manager (CSM) can prevent tax preparers from being overwhelmed with client communications and document chasing. The CSM acts as a central communication hub, ensuring clients upload documents, complete questionnaires, and meet deadlines on time. Key responsibilities include:

• Organizing and renaming documents according to standardized naming conventions.
• Monitoring client progress to keep tasks on schedule.
• Reducing the administrative burden on preparers and maintaining order in the intake process.

Accounting teams focus on tasks that truly require their expertise when a dedicated CSM manages intake and communication. The CSM keeps the workflow running smoothly in the background, improves productivity, and enhances client satisfaction by providing timely guidance and support throughout the tax season.

How Can You Stay Productive During Tax Season?

Distractions are part of life. You can’t avoid them completely, but you can manage your time effectively so that they don’t take over and reduce your performance. Focusing on one task at a time will help you accomplish more and stay productive.

Trying the hacks mentioned above will not only improve your productivity, but you’ll also feel less stressed and more in control.

So, how are you planning to manage your time in this tax season? Is there something you would like to add to this list? Please share it in the comments below.

In the next post of this blog series, we’ll be back with the tips and advice that you should follow to avoid identity theft.