In this instructional video, Ryan Vaughn explains why tax‑related stress often feels larger than the tax issue itself, linking it to a broader state of overwhelm that impairs cognition (mental slowness, forgetfulness, reduced problem‑solving). He cites a 2019 Harvard Business Review article describing the cognitive fatigue that results from chronic overwhelm. Vaughn then offers a step‑by‑step framework to reduce that stress: (1) identify the single biggest stressor on your plate; (2) if tax is a major driver, implement the Profit First method by creating a dedicated tax‑savings account with regular small transfers; (3) protect your time by scheduling focused work blocks on your calendar and rigorously honoring them; (4) delegate or outsource tasks using the "Who Not How" mindset, leveraging under‑utilized team members or excess cash. He illustrates the approach with his own experience of juggling three major initiatives (writing a book, launching a group‑coaching program, and building an internal training system) and shows how calendar blocking and quarterly reviews keep overwhelm at bay. The video concludes with a reminder that profitability is a choice and that courage and wisdom are needed to make that choice.
Chapters
Here's the question. Why and how does the stress of dealing with taxes seem to affect my daily operations so much? And what can I do to alleviate that stress? Why and how does the stress of dealing with taxes seem to affect my daily operations so much? And how do I alleviate that stress? Um, this, uh, was fun because, um, I had a general idea of why that happened. It's called overwhelm. But I wanted to look into more just because anything that relates to psychology, I just love it. And so I wanted to look into it. Um, let me read you a paragraph from this article from Harvard Business Review called How to Deal with Constantly Feeling Overwhelmed. Um, this is in 2019. So they say the cognitive impact of feeling perpetually overwhelmed, which can happen, especially when you have taxes involved and money involved. It can range from— so here's the impact of it— mental slowness, forgetfulness, confusion, difficulty concentrating or thinking logically, to a racing mind or an impaired ability to problem solve. Okay, so if we're feeling overwhelmed, sometimes our mind races. Mine does that a lot. Or we have an impaired ability to problem solve. When we have too many demands on our thinking over an extended period of time, cognitive fatigue can also happen, making us more prone to distractions and our thinking less agile. So you're not necessarily stressed just because of the tax situation. You're probably— it's probably that last piece on top of what you were already feeling. And we're giving credit to the tax making you feel overwhelmed when in fact it could be all the other things that are going on that you're trying to deal with. Coaches aren't giving you the quality you want them to, members are getting upset, equipment's breaking down. Um, it could be, uh, Unknown vendor bills. It could be, in our case, last— literally a couple days ago, um, a company downstairs, this medical company, just, well, we're shutting off the power for your building for the whole day. So my whole team couldn't really work on Friday. Um, it could be stuff like that. But it's, it's an— we all have different capacities as how much crap we can take, right, before We start feeling those effects of what they just called— what they call it— cognitive— the cognitive impact, cognitive fatigue, the overwhelm stuff. So, uh, I have some solutions for you, but just know that it's not necessarily tax outcome or that is the thing that's causing you stress. So the first thing we need to do is identify Of the things you have on your plate, what is the one contributing most to the stress? If we can identify that, then let's start putting some action items around taking care of that because it's the one that's contributing the most. And then once that's taken care of, all the other stuff maybe will feel more manageable. Obviously, when it comes to tax, um, we're big proponents of the Profit First system. We recommend having a separate bank account called the tax account for the sole purpose of saving money for your income tax burden. And if you do that following the system we recommend, which is you're going to put money into that tax account once a week or twice a month, one of those 2 options work best. You don't feel the burden and the stress of owing $10,000 or $15,000 in tax because you're doing it so frequently. It's just smaller chunks. It's little, little bits of cash that accumulate to a whole bunch by the end. Um, so if tax is in fact the actual stressor, we recommend doing that. If tax is not the major stressor and you found something else, we still recommend doing that. Go ahead and set up that tax account if you haven't already. It will make your life easier for sure. Um, so sometimes let's say we identify what the big thing is and it's a bigger project. Uh, the next thing we want to do is protect our time. Just like the Profit First system allows us to put boundaries around our cash, as owners or people in charge of our destiny, we also want to make sure that we're putting boundaries around other things like protecting our time. So one of the ways you do that is scheduling your to-do items on your actual calendar. Uh, and then here's the, here's the secret, here's the trick: you actually have to honor that appointment, even though in most cases there's not like a client coming in or a member you're dealing with or something like that. Like, that's a built-in level of accountability. It's just you usually, but you have to honor it. Um, because again, you set it up, the schedule in the first place to reduce the stress. If you schedule all this time, it doesn't do you any good if you just ignore, like, oh, it's 10 o'clock. I need to start writing in my book. Uh, if I ignore that action item, I haven't done anything to relieve my stress. So I haven't really put myself in a better situation. I personally have done this. I started it in January. I have 3 big initiatives that I'm working on this year. One of them is writing a book, and that's a big project, takes a lot of time, but I have to— I've had to schedule it out and I have to honor it. We're working on a group coaching plan to help teach business owners how to create ultimate wealth. Like, it's a framework, the ultimate— anyways, it's a framework. It's really cool. We're about ready to launch a beta test here in a week, or we're going to start sending out some communications on it. And then we've been working really hard on an internal training system for our team so that it is very clear-cut on how they know they can progress within the company, and we're giving them the skill sets in the most efficient way possible. So those were stressing me out beyond belief. And I then scheduled those into my calendar. I revisit that schedule once a quarter to make sure it's still working, uh, because you're allowed to do that. But I've been able to maintain, um, my comfort level and I haven't felt a feeling of overwhelm, even though all 3 of those things individually can feel overwhelming because of how much work has to go into them. Hopefully that makes sense. And then the last thing To consider. We've identified things that are stressing us out, we're blocking out our time. Is there someone else who can help you with it? Do you have excess cash that you could use to leverage to free up some of your time? Do you have a team member who maybe doesn't have a full workload, or they're looking to progress within the company and they want to take on some additional responsibilities? Is there someone else who can help you? Dan Sullivan is a great mind. If you haven't heard of him, he has a book called Who Not How. And so that idea— he talks about that idea. Like, a lot of times we worry, how am I going to get this done? How am I going to get this done? And he's like, find out who's going to get it done. Give them authority and accountability and the tools to be successful, and then let them figure out how to get it done. So those are some thoughts. So again, if you are stressed out about tax, one, it may not be the tax that's stressing you out, but regardless, set up a tax account and then identify the things that are actually causing you the most stress. Take care of those. And by taking care of them, sometimes that's as simple as scheduling the time when it will be taken care of and then honoring that time to yourself. Okay, that's what I got for you today. Remember, profitability is a choice. Have the courage and wisdom to choose it.
