Procrastination

Today I completed my annual accounts. I've been procrastinating on doing these for - oh, since April this year which is when I received the forms from the accountant. I promised to do what I always promise every year: "This year I'll get my tax return back to you quickly! Definitely." 

And I really meant it. Then I took the forms home, put them on the 'To-do' pile and that is where they sat for the next seven months, giving me the guilts every time I saw them. Every week I decided "Right! This week I'm getting my tax done." and I'd put them on my Work in Progress pile where something else more urgent would always somehow take priority. (Funny how that keeps happening when you really don't feel like doing something.)

My accounts are slightly more complicated than some people's because I'm self-employed, have my house in a family trust, and also claim Working for Families. So there are three separate parts to my tax.

But the thing is, it's not brain surgery. All I have to do is gather a few papers, go through a few bank statements, do some simple calculations, work out a few expenses, fill in the various forms for the accountant, put it all in a big envelope and send it off to them so they can fiddle my expenses or whatever it is they do. (Only joking in case anyone reading this is an employee of the IRD. I'm really very honest.)

And what prompted me to do them now? Well my accountant realised sending reminder letters was having no effect on me so he ended up ringing me up. I said, "Yes, absolutely. I'll have them done by this Friday! Thanks for the reminder!" 

Then I stuck them on the WIP pile again where they sat for another two weeks. 

However, I finally just did them and it took me all of two hours. That's all. And once I started I actually quite enjoyed it. It felt good to finally get rid of the paperwork beastie that has been eyeballing me malevolently from my in-tray for seven months. 

Contrary to popular opinion, doing paperwork isn't actually as bad as it is cracked up to be. It is looking at the paperwork pile and knowing it has to be done that is the worst bit.

So why prolong the bad bit by procrastinating in the first place? It's a mystery. Delayed gratification? 

I don't get why I do this because I'm a very decisive person in most aspects of my life. (Most. Not all. I've done plenty of dumb indecisive waffling in the man department. "Do I stay? Do I leave? Or maybe hang around for a bit longer even though I suspect this isn't going to work?" That kind of thing. Suspect it is why I'm still single.) 

But in general I have no trouble making decisions and then following them up with actions. When I go shopping I either love something straight away and buy it or I forget about it. My favourite clients to work with are the ones who can say: "Yes I like this" or "No, lets try something else." If I decide I want to get something done on my house I'm on the phone to the builder/plumber/electrician/whatever the same morning. It's so easy to just get things done when I don't muck around.

But yeah, paperwork. My nemesis. Last month I procrastinated on sending my invoices to clients and missed the cutoff date for payment. So this month I have no income. Next month I'll have two months income (that is providing I don't miss this month as well). You'd think I'd have learned my lesson but I'm still cutting it fine as Monday is the last day of the month and I still haven't sent my invoices. 

New Year's resolution: Stop procrastinating. 

I know it isn't New Years Day for another month, but with my track record of delaying things I don't want to do, it is probably a good idea to start early. That way I've got a month to procrastinate and can still keep my resolution. Win-Win. And next year I'll definitely get my tax in quickly. Definitely.