Hmmmmm. The story of my life, kind of like Liberté, égalité, fraternité, only not as uplifting.
Another good tip from Susan Pinsky's book. For paperwork, if you CAN'T JUST DISCARD, have a Paper Box next to your trashcan. Under your desk. Just throw in all those papers you may need. If you do need one, they will be filed by date!
For the truly disorganized (me?), you can do that all year with things you will need--or probably won't need--for taxes. Then, at tax time, you have all your credit card statements and so forth. In chronological order!
Why is this on my mind? Because (so embarrassing), dear readers, I filed a tax extension. I have no excuse. My taxes are easy: I don't itemize. I do have to keep track of educational expenses for my children. And we have a teeny bit (and I do mean teeny) of self-employment income for when the public library asks us to lead a book discussion or the like.
Even though I LOVE doing grade school arithmetic, I always make dumb mistakes. Like last year: I took the Standard Deduction of $11,000 or so and instead of subtracting $11,000, I subtracted $1100! The IRS caught that one and sent me back the correct amount. I'm sure my return goes into a special section for humor.
So, I will finish today after my root canal. My refund should pay for the procedure. Even though I should have done this a few months ago, my refund will be a nice surprise.
Once I get the return off, I can throw everything in a box and put it away. That's the decluttering I like.
Another plug for Susan Pinsky!
And I have this other book on hold at the library.
Do you engage in any embarrassing forms of procrastination?
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2 comments:
I procrastinate in so many ways it's not possible to list them. Tax forms are such a pain I've considered whether I would give up my American citizenship to avoid them...probably not, but I did think about it. I don't actually mind the taxes that much, I see why they are necessary. I don't see why the forms and the language have to be so difficult, though, and I'm not willing to pay an accountant to be the intermediary between me and the government. Not if I don't absolutely have to. So, procrastination on really nasty jobs, I understand that. Only like with root canals, sometimes it becomes the less painful thing to have it done than to put it off...
@Shelley--My son could not believe the tax forms. He had little income (under$1500) and a tiny bit of investment income. He didn't owe any thing. But to get his refund, he had to navigate the forms and it took 2 hours. And he's a good reader.
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