Procrastinating with the "less fun" bits

[BayView]

Hi Tracey. What you wrote above about the phone is EXACTLY how I feel about the phone. With three kids to organise (not young anymore, but plenty of things still to organise) I really hate the "faceless" phone. I would much rather call someone and arrange that they come around for a coffee.

I have one "friend" who rather thoughtlessly rambles on for an hour at a time and I use this time hanging on the phone listening to her waffle on about "me, me, me" while I do things around the house. (I actually do things that I have been putting off .)

I have tried cutting her off, but I don't want to offend her and it is hard to get a word in edgewise. Sometimes I just have to put my foot down and break into her monologue to say "I have to go for school pickup".

If I have to call her, I make sure I do it when I have to leave the house in 20 minutes.

Having said that, there are times when I am glad I am on the phone and not face to face.

One ex-friend, on my gently telling her over the phone that my kids were tired of her kids telling us that their house is bigger, their view is better, their pool is deeper etc, proceeded to say "Yes, our house IS bigger, and yes, our view IS better and yes, our pool IS deeper, but I will speak to my kids and explain that they cannot just tell the truth because it upsets some people "

That is one conversation I am glad was over the phone because I was completely gobsmacked and my face was

The great invention - answering machine.

 

[MissMuffitt]

Hi Tracey. What you wrote above about the phone is EXACTLY how I feel about the phone. With three kids to organise (not young anymore, but plenty of things still to organise) I really hate the "faceless" phone. I would much rather call someone and arrange that they come around for a coffee.

I have one "friend" who rather thoughtlessly rambles on for an hour at a time and I use this time hanging on the phone listening to her waffle on about "me, me, me" while I do things around the house. (I actually do things that I have been putting off .)

I have tried cutting her off, but I don't want to offend her and it is hard to get a word in edgewise. Sometimes I just have to put my foot down and break into her monologue to say "I have to go for school pickup".

If I have to call her, I make sure I do it when I have to leave the house in 20 minutes.

Having said that, there are times when I am glad I am on the phone and not face to face.

One ex-friend, on my gently telling her over the phone that my kids were tired of her kids telling us that their house is bigger, their view is better, their pool is deeper etc, proceeded to say "Yes, our house IS bigger, and yes, our view IS better and yes, our pool IS deeper, but I will speak to my kids and explain that they cannot just tell the truth because it upsets some people "

That is one conversation I am glad was over the phone because I was completely gobsmacked and my face was

Wow... what sort of a friend was she anyway!?
I would be glad to slam the phone down on that conversation!

Good on you for standing up to your now EX friend.

 

[Perp]

The great invention - answering machine.

Yes, I use voicemail a lot. But then they bloody want me to phone them BACK! And I procrastinate on doing that... If I have an email address, I'll email them back, but sometimes I only have a phone number, and I just dread having to pick up the phone...

I know, I know, just got to get over it and pick up the bloody phone!!!!

 

[Francesca C]

Hi There

Your not alone. I dont like the admin side of it either however, we have to take the good with the bad.

I have 3 trays set up on my desk at home 'In" and "Filing" and "Reading"

The "In" tray has all of the mail in it until I deal with it by either entering into PIA software or actioning it. After this I have done this, it goes into the "Filing" tray.

I have an A4 folder set up for each property with 5 dividers

1. Bank
2. Tenancy
3. Bills
4. Settlement
5. Misc

The "Reading" tray is for all my investing related magazines and material.

I also have a 4 draw filing cabinet for all the other stuff including payslips, tax returns ect.

It makes it alot easier if you set up your home office like any other business.

I will admit that my paperwork also builds up

 

[sailor]

You are not alone!

I must admit ... I too am a bit of a procrastinator. Although I am very organised with my filing. Have a tray for "bills to be paid", and after payment they go into the "bills paid" one, and when they are entered into the accounting system" they go into the "to be filed".

I've come to realise this is a lot of "paper pushing", and twould be far more efficient, to do the lot at once. So perhaps one of my goals this year will be to do away with some of the trays!

I try and do the bank recs as the statements come in...but invariably I do them every quarter ... which takes far too much time. So another goal will be to do them monthly.

Thankyou for posting this thread...I will now stop procrasting and do at least an hours paperwork.

 

[simonjulie]

I update my excel records(electronic bank statements ) twice per month and pay my bills as they are due.
I have one pile of records that I sought and scan at the end of the financial year. Takes up little time really, but must keep it religiously for it to be effective. I have taken this approach for over five years and it has kept my accountancy bills to a minimum. I currently have 15 properties.
Cheers
Simon

 

[Modal Harmony]

I remember a quote from Jan's Book "More Wealth" stating "Love your paperwork"!! This one's always stuck in my mind! Seriously though, everybody procrastinates over business related stuff, especially with a home-based business such as IP's, since there's always a more pleasant activity to do (reading, playing guitar, etc). Of course, prolonged procrastination can mean bills are missed, penalties applied, and you say "Blast! How did I let that slip by?!?"

Of course, many of you have rightly said that your procrastination also stems from interruption by little persons and this can be a real issue, especially when you've finally got around to doing the paperwork/computer entries/BAS, etc.

Intersting point re email: I've found that email has 1 really good advantage; you can get your thoughts down with NO interruptions. You can even look over your words and modify them before sending out. Phone conversations (especially cold callers!!) mean that the old grey matter has to work that much harder to respond and don't you all find that at the end of a conversation (like Wylie's experience), you hang up and think "I should have said this, or that, or in a different way".

Enough ramblings (but none of you could interrupt as I was preparing it.....)

 

[skater]

This thread has reminded me that I have way too much paperwork sitting around not done. So today I have been a good girl & spent a little bit of time doing some of it. Can't say it's been fun though.

 

[sailor]

This thread has reminded me that I have way too much paperwork sitting around not done. So today I have been a good girl & spent a little bit of time doing some of it. Can't say it's been fun though.

Me too! I've been good.

 

[Perp]

Well done, sailor and skater, on getting some paperwork done! Give yourselves a pat on the back.

And I was thinking how truly pathetic my procrastination is, and got on with a few things myself today - I've begun going through records to pull together information for 5 x ITRs - 2 x trust (05 and 07 - had to do 06 for lending purposes) and 3 x personal (05 and 07 for me, 07 for hubby). I think we'll be owed a refund on all these returns, so you'd think that would be sufficient motivation, hey?

Now I just have to keep on it and finish them. Because - like many of you, I suspect - I'm a much better "starter" than "finisher". Shall we compare notes again same time next Friday?

 

[sailor]

OP, this is a good way of motivating ourselves. Good on you for setting the target. I've done all my tax returns for 05/06 long ago, but really need to finish 07. So I'm going to take that challenge and get my A ... into gear and get cracking on it.

 

[ethereal]

The result of being starters and not finishers in our house...
walls painted 5 years ago, still getting around to finishing trims. And french doors - so many rectangles - AARGHH!
install kitchen 2 years ago, no kickboard, top cupboards and 2 doors not attached
2 doors put in, no door stops
borrowed mums video camera 2 years ago to film baby, Still getting around to charging battery - baby now 2.5.

And on it goes.

We have a builder now finishing all the odd jobs we started - it is fantastic!
I wouldn't say we are lazy as we are always very busy and do get a lot done, but starting something new is always more fun than finishing something that has been unfinished for ages. I think after a point, domestic blindness sets in and we just don't notice anymore, so long as things are functional.

I am with the other ladies on the phone thing. Troy (hubby) and I argue over who should answer it to the point that it sometimes rings out.

Hmm, very big pile of papers beside my 'puter. Should go...

Louise

 

[skater]

I am with the other ladies on the phone thing. Troy (hubby) and I argue over who should answer it to the point that it sometimes rings out.

Is it just the ladies that have a thing about the phone. I don't have a mobile. Yes, I know they are usefull & all that, but I consider it more a nuisance. And at home, I don't mind making phone calls, but I don't like answering them, especially if I am engaged in doing something else. Many a time I just let it ring out because I just don't feel like being interupted with what I am doing. I figure if it was important, they will ring back & if it wasn't, then it would have just been a waste of time anyway.

 

[Viewburn]

Documnet management software

Tracey,

Can you please give some feedback and details on the software you use for documnet management?

I was going to tell you about the book I bought about overcoming procrastination, which I didn't get around to reading... but sadly this is NOT a joke!!!!

Thanks to all those replies so far - I'm thinking perhaps I might invest in a bookkeeper to visit once a month...

And - I can't believe that I'm giving tips! - but one thing that has improved things a lot - for a girl who's much better with 1s and 0s than pieces of paper - is my investment in a piece of software called a "document management system". There are lots of different brands, I'm happy to recommend the one I bought if you PM me. You scan in all your paperwork, and it creates the file system structure that organises it (so your rental statements can be filed under both "property X", and under "rental statements", for example), and mine also does OCR (optical character recognition). So if you're not sure where your receipt for carpet is, if you've scanned it, you can ask it to search for "carpet" and it'll find the receipt for you! How cool is that?

I have spent about a year (not full-time!) gradually scanning all our paperwork into this software, and I've gotten about 2 very full filing cabinet drawers done. You can publish the whole lot as a read-only file on a USB drive, to give to your accountant or whoever. Or I take it with me to the mortgage broker and he just downloads the pdfs of all the documentation he wants for a loan application, and can immediately email them off.

The most beautiful thing about this for me, is that the ATO accepts scans of most papers, so there are very, very few things that you need the originals of, and more than 95% of stuff goes straight from scanner to shredder. There is nothing so good as the feeling of shredding paper! (Well, OK, maybe a couple of things )

 

[Elkay]

Thank you to whomever started this thread, I feel sooooo much better now. I used to think I was a bit of a freak not wanting to answer the phone (home or mobile) and putting paperwork off until I couldn't shut my filing system drawers anymore (and papers begin falling out the back of the drawer)!

My partner is ultra organised and never ever procrastinates. If you ask him for a hand with something (and generally I mean "anytime within next two days is fine") he leaps up immediately to assist. Unfortunately he expects the same from me and anytime he asks he for help, I'll trundle out there ohhh....maybe in a couple of hours or so....if I remember.....I just hate stopping in the middle of whatever I'm doing. He gets so annoyed that he'll do it himself, even if with great difficulty.

If our phone is ringing, this is what happens:

-Ring ring, ring ring
-The phone's ringing (partner)
-I know, I don't feel like talking, it's probably ###, she'll talk for ages
-Ring ring, ring ring
-Just answer it, it might be important (p)
-No, I'm in the middle of reading this stuff
-Ring ring, ring ring
-Just answer it will you (p)
-Why don't you?
-Ring ring, ring ring
-It'll be for you anyway (p)
-I TOLD YOU I DON"T WANT TO TALK TO ANYONE RIGHT NOW!
-Ohhhh (exasperated tone) I'll get it then (p)
-Ring ring, ring ring
-If it's for me, tell them I'll ring them back
-Hello? Yep I'll go and get her....hooonneyyy, it's for you, it's your sister..(p)
-AAARRRGGGHHH (yelling), I TOLD YOU I DIN"T WANT TO TALK TO ANYONE!!
-Hi sis, what's happening? (I relunctantly go to phone and speak in sweet voice)
-one and a half hours later, I get off the phone with a very sore ear and go and speak to partner....WHY DIDN"T YOU TELL HER I"D RING HER BACK??!!!

 

[Perp]

Can you please give some feedback and details on the software you use for documnet management?

Not sure if this is OK but I'm sure somebody will fix it if not I use Papermaster Pro and am very happy with it. But if you google "document management software" you'll find lots of options, including many free ones. My hubby researched about 10 or 20 different brands when we did this a year or two ago, and he thought Papermaster Pro was the best.

Basically you scan all the images in and perform optical character recognition (OCR), where the software recognises the typed text in all the images, and uses all those words to index the document (attaches all those words as key words). So if you're looking for a title for a property you sold in Newcastle, you could search on "Newcastle title" and it will (hopefully) find it for you, even if you've done no further organisation than to just scan in all the images.

If you do get to organising beyond that, I also rename all the image files (format "yymmdd filename" because that way, when I sort by title it's also sorted by date ) and "file" them, ie arrange them in a tree the same way you'd arrange things on your computer hard-drive.

Every few weeks I "publish" the lot to a CD and/or a USB drive; by selecting "publish" you copy all the files, file structure, indexing keywords etc AND a viewer - so you basically have an entirely self-contained viewable version of your entire filing system on your CD/USB drive. You can then take that CD/USB drive to any computer and see your whole filing system without requiring any specialist software. I find this particularly handy for visiting the mortgage broker - all the docs he needs to support our application are right there and I copy them to his hard drive, and it's done.

And when I get around to catching up on my ITRs I'm sure it'll also be handy for the accountant to prepare tax returns. Of course you can just publish a subset of relevant documents for them.

 

[Viewburn]

Documnet management software

Thanks Tracey,

I had a bit of a google but I do procrastinate a bit much and was keen to get some feedback. Hopefully I can get myself a bit better organized now and get things into an electronic system.

 

[pennyk]

are you expecting a refund from your Tax returns.... in the end, this was what gave me the motivation to do 3 years of tax returns!!
I think when I leave things too long to do, it becomes overwhelming and I don't know where to start. So, I think a little each day or each week is probably better.
Pen