(c) 2010 Christiana Lambert

Yes, it’s that time of the year that so few of us enjoy: tax time! Tax time is hard, even when a person is organized—or so I presume since I have never been organized, yet I know many organized people who also complain about doing taxes. Anyway, the first step to doing taxes is collecting all the pertinent documents—which would be so much easier if it only meant collecting the little papers we receive each January. I have done that, but I still have to gather so many more of the documents I’ve received throughout the year.

For many of us with what I call the disorganization gene, getting organized—whether for tax time or any other situation—often means making a mess first. I get the impression this makes little sense to those with the organization gene, but that’s because we, the “Ds”, have to first find what we need, decide what to do with it, and then actually put it somewhere. The process can get hung up anywhere for a multitude of reasons: either because we don’t know what to do or because something seemingly more important comes up or because we get tired or because we didn’t allow enough time or because we decided to do something much more exciting. See how tiring it is not getting things done??!!

So after working on tax paperwork at the end of last week, maybe it makes sense that I felt exhausted last night and went to bed early. I am crossing my fingers that those extra hours of sleep will lead to the willpower—and the ability—to carry on and finish.

Last year I started with the best of intentions and some good actions, too. I was keeping up with our medical expense spreadsheets as well as with our non-W2 income. However, my computer started acting up at the same time it refused to allow me to do easy back-ups. Yes, I lost the work I had done, even if it really was a minor portion. You see, this past year with my injury and all the extra stuff in my house that belonged to my parents, I have had an even harder time dealing with all the papers of our modern life, so it was especially nice to have some of the work “put away” electronically.

Ah well, that only works if you have a good data storage plan—which seemed like one detail too many until it became obvious it really should be and should have been one of the most important details in my life.

So as I push through all these papers and experience firsthand the frustrations of being such a Luddite, I do dream of buying a scanner for my receipts and signing up for electronic storage. And then that same Luddite who worries about others having access to my most private data argues against such a plan—except that every company that already has access to my most private data already presents a security risk I cannot control from companies that dump data improperly to those that experience security breeches into their own electronic storage.

The truth is none of that matters right now as I really have to make enough order out of this mess so that I can estimate my taxes enough to fill out the FAFSA and get the real work into the hands of our CPA.

But there is a secondary reason behind getting the folders back into their places—all this focus on numbers and papers is killing my creativity and silencing the often-racing thoughts in my head. Last month I wrote and posted eleven blog posts while this is only my third post for February and the month is almost half over.

So back to my stacks and spreadsheets—it’s in my own self-interest. Really. Here’s to acting grown-up enough to put the tax work to bed so I can earn some real playtime . . .