Do you ever get moments where you know you have things to do which are date dependent but struggle to complete them?
You may set yourself a deadline, but when that time arrives, you find yourself unable to do the job, and will look to see if you can avoid it for a while longer.
You know you’re neither incapable nor lazy, yet you find yourself unable to embark on the job.
I think this may be more applicable to those of us who work alone as business owners or just stay at home parents, where we don’t have others around us to motivate and help out. This continual putting off of tasks may cause us further mental problems as we struggle to understand why we are unable to complete the task, especially if it is as simple as hoovering or cleaning the bathroom. I guess at some point, especially if you have pets that shed hair or kids that leave toothpaste in the sink, you will get that “urgh” moment and get on with it.
Leaving business affairs, however, is often problematic as things will pile up and more importantly, there are certain tasks that need completing which cannot be delayed such as tax or VAT returns. Delivering a late return will nearly always incur a fine and daily interest from HMRC.
Whilst many will berate the taxman, I have always found them to be sympathetic when I have rung up with a problem. I can recall having to do a self assessment in January 1998 when I was in the early stages of my second pregnancy and suffering from severe all day sickness. They had changed the form and I could not work out what I had to do. The advisor I spoke to was extremely kind and he very kindly completed my form online and told me what I had to pay.
If you find yourself faced with a personal or business problem, please reach out to us in the relevant forum here; as always, never reveal personal details or information, so it’s best to sketch out the nature of the problem and someone can help or signpost. Please try to get in touch with someone sooner rather than later. It’s very difficult to get something done if the deadline is the following day and the last post has gone.
It’s also a good thing to know that submitting information to the government will need you to be issued with codes that will be sometimes be sent by post or take time to be emailed to you. Best to ensure you have this all in a convenient and safe location so that you can access them promptly when needed.
Safe to say that things will often seem harder once the short days set in. It’s hard work getting up when it’s still dark outside and you know it will be dark again by 16h that day. Some people find that certain daylight lamps help with reducing this feeling; increasing your level of vit D3 (and vit K) will help a lot as well.
Contrast this with when you wake up in the morning and the sun is shining; somehow it makes the prospect of replying to the overnight emails, weeding in the garden or hoovering the stairs a bit easier.
