Five Steps To Organize Your Tax Preparation

According to H&R Block, 20 – 25% of Americans wait until the last two weeks before the April 15 deadline to do their taxes. If you’re part of the last-minute crowd, let’s talk about how you can organize your tax preparation to minimize your stress and get the job done. 

A Plan To Rectify Christmas Procrastination

Celebrators of Christmas: if you find yourself without gifts, without decorations, without an idea of what to serve at the holiday dinner, without a plan, and a bit (maybe a lot) stressed out, take a minute to read this.

Take a deep breath and ponder these things.

·      There still is some time, but not a lot of time, before Christmas.

·      Adjust the scope of your plans to fit the time that you have.

·      Write everything down so you don’t add on the stress of trying to remember things.

Getting Unstuck

There are points in our lives when we feel stuck - when the obstacle before us seemingly defies traversing. How to get unstuck? Linda Samuels, CPO-CD® posted this question on her blog "The Other Side Of Organized" and received answers from seven colleagues. Their answers are enlightening and inspiring. Although each person answered differently, it was the honesty in their answers that tugged at my heart - especially Linda's. Sometimes time is what is needed.

For myself, I rely on the patience and wisdom of my trusted advisers who provide me the space to talk about the issue. They support me by listening and asking questions but never telling me what to do, which would be disenfranchising. Getting things out of my head provides me with the opportunity to see things from a new perspective. In that new perspective is a new direction which provides a way of traversing the obstacle. Sometimes it takes a bit of  time to develop a new perspective. Occasionally it takes a long time - then my advisers assure that things will work out.

Please take a moment to read Linda's post Stuck? 7 "Now What" Tips. We all get stuck. Thankfully we have each other to help us get unstuck.

Procrastinating? The Time To Act Is Now!

The deadline for "Time Management Strategies That Will Make Your Life Easier" is Wednesday, September 1.  This workshop is a must-attend event. You can register by visiting the sidebar.

After you finish registering, let's take a minute and talk about procrastination.

Registered? OK, let's talk.

There are many reasons why people put things off. According to Dr. Linda Sapadin, author of It's About Time, there are six styles of procrastination. These styles are: "The Perfectionist," "The Crisis-Maker," "The Dreamer," "The Defier," "The Worrier," and "The Overdoer." Typically people have two styles of procrastination - a major and a minor style. Dr. Sapadin's book includes self-assessment questionnaires that will help the reader ascertain her major and minor styles. To overcome procrastination use specific strategies that address specific styles.

I won't cover all of the styles now. Instead I will focus on "The Perfectionist Procrastinator" because it is the most frequent style of procrastination that I encounter. Some of the Perfectionist Procrastinator's traits are: gets caught up in the details that no one else cares about, has difficulty initiating or completing projects because they just don't live up to her standards, is critical of her accomplishments, has a hard time delegating because the tasks have to be "done a certain way," and is upset if she doesn't do something as well as her peers.

One of my client's came up with a brilliant analogy on how the Perfectionist Procrastinator's style wastes time:  time is spent putting one's ducks in a row at the expense of getting the ducks to march! Moving the ducks is the goal, but the goal was lost by hyper-focusing on the formation of the ducks.

Some of the ways I see the Perfectionist Procrastinator style at work are:

• Not filing papers because the client might want to change the structure of the filing system later (meanwhile the papers stack up),
• Not using help on projects because "it's faster if I do it myself" or the help just doesn't understand how important it is to do things a certain way (meanwhile the project is stalled),
• Spends hours setting up a project notebook which is intended to help manage tasks and projects and as a result has little time to work on the project,
• Does not start a term paper until every little fact on the subject is known (meanwhile the due date quickly approaches and pasts).

Overcoming procrastination, regardless of the style, requires changing the way one thinks, speaks and acts. Expect to spend a minimum of six weeks of consistent effort in order to see meaningful changes. Expect a rocky road to change. Why? Mistakes will be made. Strategies will be temporarily forgotten. Giving up might seem more appealing than persevering.  But what is gained through perseverance is immense - being more accepting of one's self, being more responsive, being more flexible, being more relaxed, and being more effective.

Dr. Sapadin offers several ways to change the way one thinks, speaks and acts. Some of her suggestions are
1) Acknowledge that perfectionism is the problem and take ownership of it.
2) Focus on what's realistic rather than what's ideal and be mindful of the resources - and the amount of time is a resource - that are available.
3) Let go of the "all or nothing" thinking and explore flexibility.
4) Change your language: replace "should" with "could," "have to" with "want to," and "must" with "choose to."
5) Set up time limits for your tasks and use a timer or a buddy to help you respect the limits.
6) Focus on doing just a few important things each day rather than an endless list of things.
7) Make one deliberate mistake each day.
8) Focus on "being" instead of "doing." Live life.

Point eight is my my favorite because living life to its fullest really is the goal.

I recommend reading Dr. Sapadin's insightful book.  It is available on Amazon.