The Unexpected Relief of "Being Early!"

I suddenly found myself realizing that something was "missing" from my life, as we move towards the middle of April: The stress of preparing income tax returns!

This is normally the time when I find the looming April 15th deadline looming over me, and I start to get majorly mired down in that horrible process.

But this year it is different. Because this year I have already done our taxes, more than a month back... because we needed a current tax statement in order to go through the process of claiming a property tax exemption, back in February.

The joy of that is that I don't have to do anything now! It's already done!

There's definitely a lot to be said for "being early" and already having the process out of the way.

You might be wondering why this is even blog-worthy... well, the truth of the matter is that I historically have never been any good at doing things "early," even when I have plenty of advance notice.

Back at University, I rarely got started on term papers until the last moment... even when I knew they would be due, many weeks in advance. The same held true of projects I needed to complete, during my years of "mainstream" work... I would always get things done at the last moment.

Of course, I always got thing done by my deadlines, but it involved that insane round-the-clock rush to get finished.

I suppose I could argue that I function that way because I practice avoidance of facing up to things I don't like doing. Like taxes! Seems I have a very low tolerance for dealing with "unpleasant" things, unless I am under extreme duress. So much for being a Responsible Adult™, I suppose...

So... this is an unusual moment, and an unusual realization for me. Perhaps I wouldn't even have noticed, if it weren't for a casual conversation with my neighbor this afternoon... where he mentioned that he needed to start working on his taxes, and I suddenly realized I'd already DONE it!

Anyway, it allowed me to find a few moments of gratitude... and gratitude matters!

Whether these temporarily good feelings will inspire me to get started early in 2023... well, that remains to be seen. In this moment, it's tempting to change my ways, though!

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great rest of your week!

How about YOU? Do you tend to finish projects and tasks early? Do you start as soon as you know that you "have to do something," or do you wait? Are you more of a last minute finisher? Do leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!

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Created at 20220407 00:12 PDT
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