Welcome back, everyone! Today, we're tackling a familiar adversary: procrastination. We've all been guilty of putting things off in both our business and personal lives. In our previous episode, we explored the surprising ways procrastination can be a force for good. However, today, we're taking a different approach, focusing on why procrastination is often a hindrance and providing practical tips on how to beat it.

Why Procrastination Matters

Understanding the Art of Procrastination

Procrastination, the art of delaying essential tasks, is a shape-shifter we've all encountered. Whether it's that crucial email, a vital phone call, or the ever-looming personal tax return, procrastination takes many forms.

 The Tax Return Context

Let's put procrastination into context—something universally relatable, the dreaded tax return. In the UK, millions face this challenge annually, with around 2 million people waiting until the last minute and 660,000 surpassing the deadline.

Unveiling the Reasons Behind Procrastination

Common Causes of Procrastination

Understanding why we procrastinate is crucial. Common reasons include a lack of motivation, poor prioritization, feelings of overwhelm, and challenges in time management.

Practical Tips to Overcome Procrastination

Strategies for Success

Now that we've identified the reasons behind procrastination, let's delve into actionable strategies to beat it.

Additionally, we need clarity on the 'why' behind a task. This rationale serves as our motivation, propelling us forward.

Furthermore, curbing distractions, using the 'Eat the Frog' method, and adopting short bursts of productivity, like the Pomodoro technique, can significantly enhance our focus and efficiency.

Consequently, breaking tasks into smaller, manageable parts and offering rewards post-completion can make the process less daunting.

Moreover, a crucial point is to understand the urgency and priority of tasks, ensuring they align with our goals.

Additional Support for Tax Return and Encouragement

Navigating Tax Returns

As an additional resource, check out our show notes for a free webinar on completing your tax return. It's filled with valuable insights on avoiding mistakes and optimizing claims.

Meanwhile, if you find yourself among notorious procrastinators, you're not alone. It's time to take control of your time and achieve your goals.

Conclusion

In conclusion, overcoming procrastination is a shared challenge. By understanding the 'why' behind it and implementing practical strategies, especially in the context of tax returns, we can reduce stress, enhance productivity, and achieve our goals. Remember to hit that subscribe button, stay updated, and share this episode with your network. Until next time, let's beat procrastination together!

Hi everyone and welcome back to another episode of I Hate Numbers. I'm your host Mahmood and today I'm going to be diving into a topic that's familiar to all of us. Procrastination. Whether it's in your business or personal life all of us have been guilty and my hand is going up of putting things off.

In last week's podcast episode, I looked at how procrastination can sometimes be a force for good, strange but true. But today, I'm going to be taking a different approach. I'm going to be looking at why procrastination is typically not a good thing and share some practical tips to show you how to beat it.

All of this is going to be put into context of something we can all relate to, that's crucial for most people in the United Kingdom and countries around the world and that's the dreaded tax return. Let's crack on.

You are listening to the I Hate Numbers Podcast with Mahmood Reza. The I Hate Numbers podcast mission is to help your business survive and thrive by you better understanding and connecting with your numbers. Number love and care is what it's about. Tune in every week. Now, here's your host, Mahmood Reza.

Now procrastination is the art of putting things off. Something all of us have experienced at some point in our business careers, some point in our lives. It could be sending that important email to a customer that gets delayed, making that vital phone call, looking at your planning for the year ahead or tackling the ever looming personal tax return.

Procrastination is a shape shifter and takes many forms. But why do we procrastinate? Well, let's put procrastination in the context of something that millions of people in the United Kingdom can relate to. And if you're listening from outside the United Kingdom, I'm sure you can relate to that for your own personal tax filing situation.

Now for the year 22/23, and that's the year 6th April 2022 to 5th of April 2023, in the United Kingdom, 12 million people approximately will be filing a personal tax return by the due date of 31st of January, 2024. Now, many people have already filed their returns and we filed a significant proportion of our clients returns already.

However, having said that there's a significant number, nearly 2 million people who don't file on time, or certainly go close to the wire, and about 660 000 people that go past that deadline. That's not a good look, and it's costly as far as your bank balance is concerned. So why do so many people wait until the last minute, causing unnecessary stress and anxiety?

You may be thinking, Mahmood, I thought this was an episode about procrastination, and you spoil things by talking about taxes. Well, it's a crucial topic. And what we really want to try and avoid is that stress inducing feeling that takes over people when it comes to filing their tax return. And certainly doing it at the last moment is not a good look.

Now, I'm not here to shame anybody. All of us have been there putting off those important tasks, that important stuff, but it's really important first of all, to understand why. procrastination occurs. And if you listen to the end, by the way, there's a couple of things I'm going to share with you for a nice, Brucey bonus about some support on the actual tax returns themselves.

You get two for the price of one. Now, there are many common reasons behind procrastination. They are as follows: lack of motivation. Sometimes we just lack the energy and the motivation to start a task. It could be a lack of prioritisation.

We may not see the task in hand as particularly important, we may not feel it's particularly urgent. Our brains will reorganise things to put in front of us what it thinks might be important, but that may not be the priority. Overwhelm is also another common reason. When a task appears to be too large, too daunting, distractions come into the fray, and tactics our brain will do try to minimise that feeling of overwhelm.

We can have issues with time management. Our time management skills may need improving. So having identified some of the reasons for procrastination, what can we actually do about it? Well, firstly, we need some clarity and we need to fix firmly in our mind the why. Why are we performing this particular task?

What's the rationale behind it? What's the thing that's going to motivate us? If we look at the instance of your tax return, getting it done on time, getting it done early means you've got time to plan for any tax payments there may be, especially if you've not put that money aside to pay for it, you can rectify past mistakes and give yourself time to amend and submit your return for a prior period.

You can organise yourself. And if you know what lies ahead, what money is you need, and you don't quite have those resources here, then you can take action and not leave it to the last moment. What else can we do? Well, we can curb our distractions, limit those emails that are coming in, bombarding us, turn off our phone notifications, discipline ourselves to check our emails maybe twice a day.

I certainly wouldn't recommend checking them first thing in the morning, because that way your emailers are the ones who are dictating your agenda for the day. Are you familiar with the saying, eat the frog? Now it's not about culinary delight. The whole idea behind eating the frog is, eating a live frog is not considered a particularly pleasant pastime, a pleasant activity.

So we get that out of the way first of all, the rest of everything in front of us feels much easier. So it's about getting the hardest tasks done during your most productive hours. That could be first thing in the morning, could be the afternoon, it could be early evening. But whenever that time is, get the tasks that you're putting off that have some degree of urgency and priority, get them done first.

You can do short bursts. There's a technique called the Pomodoro Technique, where you do those tasks in short bursts, rest, relax, recharge and do them again. Other things we can do, well we can break tasks down into smaller manageable bites. We don't have to swallow the whole meal in one go, digest in small increments.

Take your time, gather that necessary information. And if we take the analogy of the tax return, it won't feel as daunting. You may want to organise your time to actually gather the data that you need, gather all the forms and the documentation, understand what you've got to do, what you've got to claim for.

And I'm certainly talking about people who might want to do their tax returns on a DIY basis. So, organisation, collation, thinking what you've got to do, making sure you've got your tax references to date, for example, is going to make your life much easier. Rewards are also a good incentive here. So if you've done a task that you're in your brain in your mind, you've been putting off, you consider it to be an arduous, unnecessary task here.

Well, after you've completed that task that you've been procrastinating, delaying over, treat yourself. It could be a slice of cake. It could be a walk. It could be scrolling through your social media feed. Whatever it is that gives you joy, reward yourself after you've accomplished an activity. Now, folks, if you are doing your tax return as a DIY project, that's perfectly fine for certain cases that are more straightforward.

If you check the show notes, there's a link to a free, yes, I use that word free, webinar that I'm going to be hosting on completing your tax return. How to do it, mistakes to be avoided, the common pitfalls, claims that you can make, and how to reduce, within legal parameters, your tax burden. Now, if you are a notorious procrastinator, do not

overwhelm yourself. Do not fret. You are not alone. So, folks, until next time, try and reduce that procrastinating. Try and reduce that overwhelm and anxiety you might be inducing in yourself. Tick off those important tasks. Though procrastination is a common challenge, it's one that can be overcome. It's one that can be mitigated.

Understanding the why makes it much easier to come up with a solution and the way to reduce it. So if you have been procrastinating, for example, on your tax return, if you're one amongst the 2 million people who wait until the relatively last minute, then it's time to stop. It's time to take control of your time and achieve those goals you set yourself.

Now, as a reminder, check out the show notes, check out the link for a registration. If you feel there are other people in your network that will benefit from this, whether you're an artist, whether you're a small business, whether you're an individual, share that with them. And until next time folks, don't forget to hit that subscribe button, keep up to date, stay awesome, and see you soon.

We hope you enjoyed this episode and appreciate you taking the time to listen to the show. We hope you got some value. If you did, then we'd love it if you shared the episode. We look forward to you joining us next week for another I Hate Numbers episode.