Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Deadlines are a great motivator

It is that time of the year.



Most of the people in the United States are already done collecting w-2's and all of their wonderful paperwork that is needed for taxes.  There are a few though that like to work better with a set deadline.  Although taxes officially don't have to be turned in until April 17th my goal is to be done by this Friday.  Yes, you read that right.  My taxes are not done.

Here are your thoughts, I can already hear them.  I'll just go ahead and answer those questions that are in your head for you.

But taxes are so easy!  Why don't you have them done?  
Well, mine are not.  I am self employed.  I not only have to go through EVERY single receipt that we have for the year, record every single item that is used in our home or for day care but I also keep track of miles for trips to those places and have to record all utilities as well that are used in some way for day care.  This is pretty much everything.  Now, not only do I have to go through all of that but I also have to record how much time we used our house as a business.  From there, we take each deductible item and use this crazy mathematical equation to figure out how much of that item can be deducted based on the time our house was used and the percentage of our house that was used.  Am I boring you yet?  I am boring myself.

Why don't you just do this throughout the year?
Hmmm.  Have you seen my schedule?  I am a mom to three and run a day care in our house.  I am lucky if I get supper on the table or get to the grocery store each week.  I am not joking.  My family can vouch for those two things.  Sometimes my kids don't even have clean pants to wear to school because laundry hasn't been done in 2 days.  (Less clothes the kids have, the less laundry I have to keep track of...I can do that simple equation...still have to get the clothes washed though)  Going through receipts on a daily or weekly (or even monthly) basis in my "down time" just isn't in the cards right now.  I have no down time.

Why did you wait so long?  The deadline is this weekend.
As I stated above, I work best with deadlines.  Actually, I work best if the deadline is right in front of me.  I don't need people screaming at me to do things.  I don't need constant reminders.  All I need is a date that is set by a higher authority.  Taxes will be done Friday.  I promise.

I have a lot that I want to blog about (birthdays with great pictures of snakes, family outings, camping with Sid, Easter, my birthday, and of course some workout stuff) but it has to wait.  I have a deadline...and still have a family to feed, a store to get to, have to work 50 hours this week and get to the gym every morning.  Blogging will have to take a backseat for the moment...and laundry.  :)  Sorry kids, you are own for clothes the rest of the week.  Hope you can find something to wear.  Laundry will resume on Friday.


2 comments:

Cori said...

Did you make your deadline? I'm a friend of deadlines, too, but for whatever reason I tend to get taxes done early. I guess because my non-deadline-oriented husband gets on my case. ;) That and ours aren't very complicated.

Unknown said...

Yes...we finished them last Thursday night. I despise them though so much. I would rather go to the dentist or do anything other than work on taxes. If I didn't have to go through every receipt for pretty much everything that we buy it wouldn't be so bad. I guess that is just life in America :)