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I, too, would like to see the discussion broaden to "difficulty doing things" in general. Anyone else suffer from pathological procrastination as they age?
Yes - this is what I was trying to get at. I just focused on taxes, because that's my latest nemesis, but when I get done with taxes it will be updating my advance health care directive and redoing my trust - none of which I want to do - I have been procrastinating on those tasks for awhile. I never had that problem before but I just don't have the intrinsic motivation to do things I don't want to do - and I used to be very motivated to do everything and anything that came down the pike.
Yes - this is what I was trying to get at...I never had that problem before, but I just don't have the intrinsic motivation to do things I don't want to do - and I used to be very motivated to do everything and anything that came down the pike.
Same; I understand. And even things that should be a pleasure, like sitting down and mapping out the trips I want to take this year (so the schedules don't conflict with each other) and working out the logistics get shoved to the back burner, even though I very much want to do those things. It's puzzling! I just seem to have lost all my drive and ambition - as well as motivation - for even the smallest tasks. I didn't send out Christmas cards for the first time in decades even though I wanted and planned to. Day after day, it just didn't happen. Dishes and laundry, for example, which I used to dash off without a thought on weekends between other activities while I was working, now sit and wait to a ridiculous degree, and it takes a Herculean effort to even begin them. It's as if I'm torpid; all rather strange. Yet if I have someplace to go, something to do, or someone to see, I have no problem at all getting up, getting ready, and getting myself out the door, and I enjoy that.
Title says it all. I can't stand getting my taxes ready for my accountant. I have rental properties so have to include all of the expenses and it's a pain in the booty.
I am just SICK OF IT. I hate it. It takes literally days - I feel I have to list everything; recap everything. Ugh.
I'm in mid-old-age and just wonder how much longer I can possibly do this and also how other old people do it.
I just do it
If you don't want to do it. Put everything in a bag and take it to H&R or CPA
I have a separate checking account for our rental with its own debit card and every single expense gets paid out of that account, either by auto-pay, check, or debit card. Then it's simple to take the statements for the year and transfer them to an excel spreadsheet that's already set up with the vendor names and various columns for each expense category needed for the tax forms. The spreadsheet totals the various categories and voila! Enter those figures into Turbo Tax and e-file. Easy-peasy.
I hate doing taxes, too. So my "solution" is to get it done with as soon as I can. I duplicate last year's spreadsheets and note to my accountant, and change them as needed. But the template is there for each task, and I'm not re-inventing the wheel each year.
I always have a list of things that need to be done and if I have a day with nothing planned I work on completing items on my list. I find it very satisfying to cross things off the list. Also now that I’m not working full time I have the time to keep my house immaculate which also feels good.
I always do my spring cleaning in April but had a bad snowstorm so was home for a few days so did it all. Then I realized February is a much better month to accomplish those tasks versus wasting the good weather in April. I put everything on my calendar so next year when I get to February it will remind me to spring clean.
I gathered all my tax paperwork and emailed it to my son as soon as I received it. I actually don’t understand procrastination at all. I will be 70 this year but in fact the older I get the more on top of things I am.
I always have a list of things that need to be done and if I have a day with nothing planned I work on completing items on my list. I find it very satisfying to cross things off the list.
Also now that I’m not working full time I have the time to keep my house immaculate which also feels good.
I always do my spring cleaning in April...I actually don’t understand procrastination at all. I will be 70 this year but in fact the older I get the more on top of things I am.
Yes, we know; your life is perfect, and you can never relate to those of us experiencing difficulties or problems. Thanks, as always, for jumping in and sharing!
I may procrastinate a tad more because I have much more free time, so easy to say "I'll do it later". The less time I have, the more I get done.
But for the most part I'm pretty structured, some things get done once a week, some I do every 6 months (like baseboards and moulding), some things are "projects" (this winter is touch up paint), and finishing all my half done hobbies (finishing a blanket in time to visit later this month). Winter is normally the time we make all our summer travel reservations - happy to report 95% done!
My brain divides things up into "boxes", first box is the normal day-to-day stuff that gets done (bathroom cleaning, laundry, cooking), then the small project box (right now I need to put up hanging plants, etc), so I pick a couple of those for the next day (I always have a list of those projects and set a goal of some of them for the next week, depending on our schedule), exercise is always worked into the weekly schedule, and then bigger projects and travel.
I know myself pretty well (the obstacles I put in my own way), so I have ways to "trick" myself. Say I had a huge stack of paperwork to go through (wouldn't happen ) and I REALLY didn't want to do it.
I tell myself "just open all the paperwork and throw away the stuff that doesn't need any action" and that's all I have to do.
What usually happens is:
Oh, I'll just pay the bills and leave the rest
This stack of needed responses is small I'll just do that
I'll just file them to clean up and leave the rest.
There is not much remaining! I'll just finish it up.
I just give myself permission to stop at any point, which makes me feel better, and it normally gets done in full.
It's the exact same process I use for cardio and weights everyday.
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Yes, we know; your life is perfect, and you can never relate to those of us experiencing difficulties or problems. Thanks, as always, for jumping in and sharing!
My life is far from perfect and I have had many heartbreaks but I choose to focus on what I can do to make my life better. Lists are one way I keep on track. Focusing on the negative would just make my remaining years miserable and that’s not how I choose to live. I have 2 close friends who each lost a child and nothing is worse but neither of them gave up and are living the best they can given their circumstances. Whatever we focus on increases in our lives.
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) and I REALLY didn't want to do it.
