The fork clinks against the plate louder than it should at this hour.
It’s midnight again.
You’re still at your desk, spooning cold pasta that’s starting to taste like deadlines and despair.
Outside, the city’s gone to sleep. Somewhere, someone’s watching Netflix. Someone else is dreaming about a beach. And here you are, manually fixing a formula that Excel insists is “too complex.”
You laugh, because the only thing complex right now is why you’re still here.
There’s a certain kind of silence that only auditors know.
The one between “I’ll just finish this section” and “Oh God, is that the sunrise?”
You start to hallucinate in Excel colours.
That green ribbon haunts you in your sleep.
Your playlist has run out of songs, and your coffee has developed a personality.
You tell yourself you’re just being dedicated.
But deep down you know that dedication doesn’t have to look like exhaustion.
And that’s when it hits you:
If dedication means missing life… maybe it’s time to audit what dedication really means.
Because the truth is, auditors don’t get medals for martyrdom.
No one hands you a trophy for “Most Overtime Hours Survived.”
Instead, what you get are missed birthdays, takeout boxes that multiply like errors in a GL, and a vague sense that you’re living for a version of success that never clocks out.
You can’t deliver clarity when your mind is foggy.
You can’t protect other people’s numbers if you’re constantly losing count of your own life.
So here’s your permission slip:
Audit your time like you audit a file.
Ask yourself:
1. Where am I losing hours to inefficiency?
2. What tasks could be automated, delegated, or deleted?
3. What would it take for me to close the laptop before midnight?
If you can reconcile a balance sheet, you can reconcile your boundaries.
The late nights will always whisper, “just one more hour.”
But here’s the secret: one more hour turns into your life if you’re not careful.
And you, my friend, are worth so much more than that.
Until next week,
Christiaan
P.S. Audits live and die by timing. Miss a cutoff, and chaos follows. The same goes for Sheet Happens, your weekly dose of sanity and sarcasm. So, when should your sheets land? Monday blues, midweek mayhem, or Sunday Scaries? Pick your day here
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