April Editors Alley – The Budget Season Blues

Luckily for me, I have a great team that supports me in the budget process and in the department, but like many, there have also been years where I’ve done the budget all alone; from request entry training to manually binding hard copies of the adopted book. Thus, as I work towards the end of my 20th or such budget preparation cycle with my team, I am reminded of two recurring truths: don’t do it all yourself and sometimes it is good to take a break and recharge.

In regard to the latter, I am a big fan of taking short walks during the workday; both to enjoy the sunlight and fresh air and also to collect my thoughts for the next thing to accomplish over the day or to prepare for the next meeting. By taking these short daily breaks for myself, it improves my physical and mental wellbeing and gives me the energy to effectively move through my checklist of to-dos for the day, week, month, and year. And every so often, I also just take a day off where I don’t think about work at all (kind of) and try to do something fun and relaxing with my family, my friends, or myself. The budget gets done every year without fail; even though there are some years where the road is bumpier than others and we are all not sure it will ever get done. But it’s not good in my opinion and experience to work every single day. Burning out can happen easily and productivity goes down the longer you go without a break. Micro-breaks during the day and days off, when possible, go a long way towards getting over that budget finish line. It truly is a marathon and not a sprint, so make sure you are well-conditioned mentally for that long haul.

And in regard to the former, do get help if you can. Depending on the size of your organization, this may not always be possible. Nevertheless, time and time again, I have been shown that a better product is produced and a lot more gets accomplished when you work with others to do it. Early in my career, this was a hard realization to come to and I wanted to do everything myself because I thought that I could do it the best. And there were many years where I simply had no choice due to staffing resources. But you will often be surprised by where you can find help. There is usually always someone in your department or another department that wants to learn more about the budget and assist. This could mean acting as a budget liaison with other departments to review and answer questions on their requests. Or it could mean analyzing data, preparing sections of the budget book, or summarizing legislating updates that have fiscal impact to your organization. No matter where and how you get help, all will make the budget process better and reduce the risk of burnout and decreasing productivity by doing it all yourself.

So hopefully this quick read was a reminder to all and helps you and your organizations to turn the Budget Season Blues into the Budget Season Melodies. As I write this, it was also a good reminder to me. Even a public finance budget veteran needs that reminder. So good luck! See you all at the finish line at the end of June or before!