How Much is Procrastination Costing You?

Is procrastination 'getting your goat'?  Is it costing you money? It sure has been getting to me lately!  Dave Ramsey talks at length about the miseries of paying the

 
He's referring to times when we end up paying fees and getting stuck in financial woes due to not thinking enough about what we are doing or not reading the fine print.  (Read all about it HERE.) I've paid this tax many a time but no more so than recently.

Why? Because of PROCRASTINATION!  I just want to kick myself for paying this tax. Late fees and fedex over night shipping, or--like just recently paying extra interest because I didn't rollover a small debt (for dental work) to a lower interest credit card. Procrastinating costs money! Ouch!  If you are having any trouble with finances--there's no better source for help and a great plan than Dave Ramsey! He's saved our financial lives many a time!

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Deer in the Headlights Syndrome
But for some reason, since my father passed away in January, I've just been somewhat overwhelmed with all the estate issues. I'm doing TWO sets of finances some of which include areas I've never dealt with before, like selling a home, Social "in-Security", and savings bonds, muniment of title, investments etc. It's a huge list. I keep tackling the urgent things, but putting off the less urgent.

I think I've been suffering from the "deer in the headlights' syndrome!

 

Have you ever felt like that? The truck (called paperwork) seemed to be barrelling down on me and I just sort of 'froze'.

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If you add to all this my FIRST EVER SPEEDING TICKET--in my whole life, which included an online defensive driving course, plus buying a newish car, driver's ed for a child, losing a debit card and having to retrace the steps of where automatic payments were relying on it, foundation repairs, terminex, plumbing, contingency amendment for house sale that fell through, long distance yard and home maintenance...and the list goes on and on.
 

There is a solution!

The last two days have been spent making order out of this chaos.I feel SOooo much better!! (I wanted to sew but the paperwork was piling up on the desk. I will sew with much more enthusiasm knowing our papers and finances are in order!)  I don't know what you do when you get into a spot like this, but when I finally remember to do it, I do have a good approach.

Anything we have been procrastinating about, by nature, is something that CAN be put off. And that's the KEY to fixing the problem. If it can't be--generally-- we do something about it. I finally did finish the defensive driving course (barely on time) because it had a deadline.  But the great thing about items on our list that we tend to put off is that they can be 'scheduled'. Don Aslett, in his book How to Have a  48 Hour Day says that most of the things we procrastinate on  don't take a lot of time to do--they're just distasteful jobs. And he is so right!  (I bet you aren't surprised to hear that this is one of my ALL TIME FAVORITE BOOKS!) :o)

Calendar to the Rescue!
So what do I do? I get out a calendar, piece of paper, and a pencil (not a pen), and I start making a list of all those little things that are bugging me--bills, letters, thank yous, miscellaneous tasks, errands, and small home repairs.  Then I mark them by urgency.  Next, I write in any big events on the calendar that we will be doing and write one of these procrastinated 'mini-jobs' per day in all the blanks. I just spread the whole list out over a month's time so it doesn't seem so overwhelming!   I can do one or two items--just not 30!

It's funny, but once I get the list spread out, I'm finally able to get moving again. I even got several things done rather than just the couple I had scheduled!


How about you? Feeling like a deer in the headlights? How do you deal with procrastination?