Procrastinators Anonymous is a fellowship of men and women who share their experience, strength and hope with each other that they may solve their common problem and help others to recover from chronic procrastination.
I need to find out what the NYC Housing Authority requires for apartment heat. This apartment has always been cold. I called the super 1.5 hours ago. The requirements he told me (1) don't make sense, and (2) I'm not even getting that much heat. I need facts to get action on this.
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Bedtime Routine
Make up bed (convert futon from couch to bed).
Empty dish drain and wash any dirty dishes.
Take out contacts.
Take last dose of pills. (Actually, it's the second dose because I never took my pills this afternoon.)
I found the heating code on the NYC Web site. The super did get it backwards, but the heat usually comes on in the morning so it's probably set right. The temperature outside is exactly 55 degrees, which is the cut-off. That's why the heat wasn't on when I called him earlier. Now that it's after 10pm, they don't have to provide heat unless the temperature drops below 40.
Often the temperature in my apartment isn't 68, though, even when the heat is on. That's because I'm on the top floor and my apartment is especially drafty. If he adjusted the furnace to make my apartment 68, all the other tenants would be roasting. Technically it's a violation in my apartment, but I'm not going to hassle them as long as the heat comes on when it should.
I was actually up two hours ago because I was coughing, but I finally got back to sleep. Just now some idiot on the roof across from me woke me up yabbering in Spanish.
As for heat... I'm not especially fat, but I've never liked heat. When I lived in my own house and controlled the heat, I always kept it fairly cool.
I'm tired, and off to bed. Just had an exhausting conversation with DH about marketing. He's frustrated that I won't let him try some original marketing ideas (they appear cheap and opportunistic) and I'm frustrated that he won't see my ideas (which are researched from other organisers, not his industry) as being potentially successful.
So I'm tired and ready for bed!!!!!!!!!!!
How are you feeling? Got a big or small day planned?
I think it's hard to be in business with a spouse. There's a reason that large companies don't allow it. There's too much personal baggage clouding things up.
The only thing I have planned today is my back accounting. I tried as hard as I could to come up with something else that needed to be done first, but I'm out of ideas. }:)
Hmm..some it works for, others it doesn't. We're closer to the latter at the moment!! But we have improved immensely - I no longer end up in tears in our meetings! :lol:
We are working better together every week. Tonight I just realised we were not getting anywhere and I just said "Enough! Let's stop this conversation now." and he said "fair enough...seeya then" and walked out (not angry). A few months ago we would have stomped out on each other, fuming.
I am off to bed now. Get stuck into that accounting! You can do it!!!! I'll check up on you in your afternoon....look out!
My husband's father and stepmother ran a business together. They had an excellent partnership and got very prosperous because they had the same vision and honored one another's complementary skills. They also always confronted problems head on, immediately (they just don't get procrastination at all, btw), and assertively, even aggressively at times (but generally not toward each other). I saw them snap at each other and argue sometimes, but one or the other would always yield and let the other try it their way (not necessarily with any grace or the expectation that it would work, mind you). If the idea failed, the one who proposed it would apologize and make amends. If it worked, the one who opposed it would apologize and compliment the other. They didn't carry any grudges or smoldering resentment because everything was up front and it either worked or it didn't. They were excellent negotiators.
I think the key point here is that they only negotiated about methods. They were in perfect agreement about values and goals and what they were all about.
My so-called "break" turned out to be "done with work for today". That's okay. The only thing I didn't do was go through my pile, which isn't that big - just mail and receipts from last week.
I should have known I wasn't going to get back to work because it was already 6pm, my usual quitting time. I got a late start today because I was researching something I have a personal interest in and I thought I'd make up the time, but no. I haven't been sleeping well the last few nights, and I'm tired.
The one thing I feel very good about today is that I got back to the potential client as promised - I'd written to him while I was sick and said I'd call Monday. I was professional with him on the phone, gave him a lot of good ideas, and sent him an estimate right after the phone call. These are people I've known for 15 years. I don't want to pull my usual nonsense with them (procrastinating, breaking promises, etc.). I don't want to embarrass myself. Wouldn't it be so nice to feel, for once, that I'm not behaving in a shameful way towards a client.
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Researched topic of long-term interest and ordered some books.
Morning Routine
Wake up: 8:30am (target: 7am).
Empty dish drain and wash any dishes from previous day.
Make and eat breakfast.
Wash breakfast dishes (in cold water :( ).
Shower (wash in cold water :( )and dress.
Take out pills for the day.
Swallow morning pills.
Make bed (convert futon back into couch).
Put in contacts.
Returned phone call about Web site work (involves technical writing).
Researched hourly rate for technical writing.
Decided upon hourly rate, estimated the number of hours the project would take, and sent email to potential client.
Pick up mail.
Buy food for dinner and tomorrow's breakfast.
Send email to friend who shares interest in topic I've been researaching about books I bought.
2 hour IRS call [done]
The price of procrastination will be extremely heavy.
This will force me to get it together.
Need a job and would like to work from home any suggestions?
>2 hour IRS call [done]
The price of procrastination will be extremely heavy.
This will force me to get it together.
You, too? So many of us have serious tax problems. I haven't filed returns in a couple of years because I stopped keeping up with my accounting and don't have the records to give to my accountant. Also, this isn't the first time I've done this. When I get a little behind on my accounting, I start procrastinating on it, and then it gets worse and worse. If I could pick one single thing in my life that I never want to do again, that would be it.
>Need a job and would like to work from home any suggestions?
I've worked from home for 15 years. The first 12 years I made an excellent living, though I haven't been doing that well recently. I've done freelance writing and editing (for magazines), software sales, and Web development. I've thought about helping people with their computers (and I've had requests to do it), but I don't have the patience for that. Oh - and I've done some teaching - lectures, workshops. And I have a couple different dot-coms - one selling a service (soon a book, too) and one selling a product.
What are your skills? That's the question you need to ask yourself. Also, what are your reasons for wanting to work from home? There are good parts to it (freedom, mainly), but it can be a big pain in the neck. Take the accounting, for example.
My tax problems are not from not keeping up with the paper work actually I hate to admitted but my hoarding does not allow me to let things go and I have two degrees in accounting and a great tax system. My problem is that I never sat down to file out the forms since they generally owed me I put it off. You see my problem truly is compulsive avoidance. Had the software the back up and just did not submit the forms.
I also stopped working 5 years ago and lived off pension and 401 k without paying the taxes. Now I will have to file for every year I didn't from 1987 to now. Joke is I have the paper work and actually know where it is ( a great thing for a hoarder). But I don't know how many years they will take they said they might go back to 1998. Then I will also have re-file 2000, and 2003 which they filed for me with out my knowledge.
Anywho, that the tax story,
Why I want to work from home is at this time I am not physicall able to go to a job every day. I just started standing and walking in august after spinal surgery. I have one more procedure on the back and two on my knees. Plus some major dental work in progress.
Skills - so many I am ashamed to share because it shows how deeply i have fallen. IT Projectment, IT auditing, I have graduate certificate in web design from NYU (have no server side knowledge) and a coaching certificate for CoachU and I test and teach learning style techniques to kids. Oh Yeah I forgot I am a six sigma black belt in organizational development. (off the subject but I also have MS in theology that was personal just for fun) List does not include hobbies.
It's not that I don't have the information to file my taxes. I have all the paper. It's all neatly sorted into folders by account and date. I just haven't entered it into my money management program, and that has to happen before my accountant can repair the returns.
I haven't filed my own tax returns since I incorporated 15 years ago. I'd have to know as much as my very good accountant to do what he does, and I have a different career. He's well worth the money I pay him. He costs me a few hundred dollars, and saves me many thousands.
As for what you can do working at home... Since you have a lot of skills, you have a lot of options and you just have to figure out what you'd enjoy. Coming up with the "big idea" is not trivial, and also something only you can do for yourself. To put the kind of energy into a home-based enterprise that will allow it to work, it has to be something you'll love doing, and only you know what you love doing.
"It's not that I don't have the information to file my taxes. I have all the paper. It's all neatly sorted into folders by account and date. I just haven't entered it into my money management program, and that has to happen before my accountant can repair the returns."
I did not have to figure out ~anything~ before I gave my info to the accountant. If you have it all neat and sorted, why can't the accountant do it? Just wondering. :?
I enter the information into my money management program, and then produce reports which I give to my accountant. My accountant would not do this for me - it's several weeks of full-time work - and it has to be done because I'm self-employed. When you're self-employed, you have to keep much more detailed records about your expenses because so many things are deductible. If you don't keep records it could cost you thousands and thousands of dollars.
That said, I am a bit compulsive about it. My accountant once told me that I had the best records of any of his clients, and because my records were so good he was able to be more aggressive with my tax returns than he could be otherwise. Because I save everything, it can be defended in an audit.
I've been putting it off for years. Nudge me all you want. It helps, actually. I have an uncanny ability to put it so far out of my mind that I forget about it. If I felt some urgency about it, I'd get it done.
My bed still isn't made and I'm working - I hate that. But I wanted to send the guy an estimate for the work he asked me to do before 5 o'clock. Of course, first I had to come up with an estimate. I had to decide on what hourly rate to charge him (this is going to be technical writing rather than programming), and then I had to come up with a guess of how long it would take (like I know).
I'm going to go make my bed now, and finish the rest of my "morning" routine.
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Morning Routine
Wake up: 8:30am (target: 7am).
Empty dish drain and wash any dishes from previous day.
Make and eat breakfast.
Wash breakfast dishes (in cold water :( ).
Shower (wash in cold water :( )and dress.
Returned phone call about Web site work (involves technical writing).
Researched hourly rate for technical writing.
Decided upon hourly rate, estimated the number of hours the project would take, and sent email to potential client.
Hey all! Haven't checked-in in a couple days, figured I'd say "hi."
I'm seeing how things go without physically checking in so much. I felt like I was wasting a lot of time on the PA website. I've set up hard copies of my routines to keep me moving. It's working out well; I had a very productive weekend and Monday. Don't worry, I won't stray too far.
Glad to see pro's feeling better and a couple new names. Welcome!
My temp finally returned to normal on Saturday. What a dreadful week.
> I felt like I was wasting a lot of time on the PA website. I've set up hard copies of my routines to keep me moving. It's working out well; I had a very productive weekend and Monday.
That's good! I couldn't do it, though. When I don't check in, I start wasting far more time than I spend checking in. I've tried for years to do it on my own and I couldn't. I'm very happy to have found something that works for me - I accept that I can't do it on my own.
I returned the phone call of the person who wanted to talk to me about his Web site before I finished my morning routine because it was getting so late.
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Morning Routine
Wake up: 8:30am (target: 7am).
Empty dish drain and wash any dishes from previous day.
Make and eat breakfast.
Wash breakfast dishes (in cold water :( ).
Shower (wash in cold water :( )and dress.
Returned phone call about Web site work (involves technical writing).
Oh well , website1 is really a pain. Now I understand better why I was avoiding it for so long. May be most of us avoid doing things because we sense it is going to be a real pain? Sunday was tough: I really just fed up with all the 'backlog' or postponed things ( I have a HUGE pile) I have to do.
Step14-second half took all afternoon. When finished it, I was just relivied??? :lol: :lol: :lol:
Then went home for a break :smile: , tidy a bit and back to the office. I just feel like getting website1 out of the way. Seems that I have done the hardest steps up to step 30. After, I guess the nightmare will start again. :jawdrop: :jawdrop: :jawdrop:
So far
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- step14 ( really long)
- kitchen tidied
- quick sandwich
This evening
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*T0 D0 ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
- step15
- step16
- step17
- step18
- step19
- step20
- step21
- step22
- step23
- step24
- step25
- step26
- step27
These steps are very small files, so I hope I can stick to
10minutes/steps
iwant2workharder - Are you self-employed, or do you work for someone else? I'm self-employed, and I've had a terrible time pricing my work because I'm so bad at estimating how long things will take. I always underestimate, and sometimes that can have me earning $5/hour for my work (or less). I saw from your posts that you have a bit of this problem, too - don't anticipate how long things will take. It's very hard to estimate accurately with programming. You can't know what kinds of problems you'll encounter until you start doing it.
I once lost 5 hours trying to find a bug in my PHP code that was driving me crazy. Do you know what it turned out to be? In an if-statement, I had used a close-parens ) when it should have been a curly bracket } and on my laptop monitor I couldn't see the difference!! :O
Amazing how Mondays can drag and fly at the same time.
Last night: bedtime 2 am (target 11 pm)
This morning: wakeup 8 am (target 7 am)
Already done:
eat breakfast
take pills
REVIEW SCHEDULE
check voicemail
catch up on reading (10 min)
discuss presentation
lunch appt
research plastic film
confirm pickup w/ D
To do:
Frog 1
Frog 2
review weight tix
fill out survey
email Peter re: V next steps
brainstorm for presentation Wed
slate - what happened?
process emails (15 min)
Wilson – what happened to windows? Call K.
update start/finish grid
Postponed:
confirm pickup w/ D (need to go see first)
Tonight:
make/eat dinner
feed cats/scoop pan
dance
call LB
I'm trying to get back on track (after falling into a deep hole of doing something interesting when I should be doing something else). I turned on the water for a shower, but it seems there is STILL no hot water. That's how I got so sidetracked in the first place (right - blame it on the boiler). I really need a shower. :(
Pro
heat up a large pot of water on the hot plate not to boiling but to comfortabe. pour it in the bathroom sink of a large basin stand on a towel, wash yourself down with one soapy cloth, rinse yourself off with another in my neighborhood it's called a "whore" bath. We had furnace trouble in our building but not much we have a hundred and eighty apartments and no heat no hot water makes folk very ugly!
anywho,
todos for now
eat [done]
washed dishes[done]
Get out of jammies [done]
call IRS
call make knee appt [done]
call make back checkup appt[done]
work clearing on the master bath floor
Journal on breaks
Plumbers always know how to make themselves needed, don't they?!!
They could have come early and by now you would have had a nice shower. Also, sometimes it is good that there is no hot water:
one can just stay in bed, read, write, phone, watch TV, listen to the radio, think, ... Specially as you are still ill, it is not a bad thing to stay in bed and get well. Then when in good physical form ( no illness), it makes things easier to see people...
It seems there are a lot of IT people here: it is really good. I'd like to know : is it hard for the others in IT? my experience is
people who leave do not get replaced and all the others have to take on additional work. I am actually adding translating english websites!!!
I know a lot of computer people who got in early and made a huge pile of money. This never happened to me. :(
The person I was talking to today owns a software development company with someone who I've known for many years. I knew his partner had money (because he seems to have the option of not working), but I never knew from where... until today. Back in 1993, he was the primary developer at what is now one of the biggest software companies in the world, and he had stock options. Microsoft also used to give stock options, and I know a lot of Microsoft millionaires, too.
Why couldn't this ever have happened to me? I know so many people who were in the right place and at the right time. I was there when the computer industry was in its infancy - it COULD have happened to me - but no such luck. :(
Today, the computer industry is very different. Whether a developer is doing well or badly has a whole lot to do with what country they are in. In the US, programmers are crying their eyes out. Programmers in the US have one of the highest unemployment rates of any group because of outsourcing - the jobs are all going to Russia and India.
In Germany, we also have a very high unemployment rate ( officially 15%, in reality many areas reach 60% :sad: , the young and educated become expatriate in your country America).
The situation is such that we even work for 1 euro/hour ( 10 euros is 12 $) and call these euro-jobs :jawdrop: . We have no choice as most of the work is going to our cousins from poland and russia. I run a company owned by others: staffs have left and the owners do not want any new hire and the work still has to be done - Thus my translating english websites now. You are lucky to be in America, there are a lot of well paid work there. Here, it is very very hard -I tried to even get a job with the government- and people from poland and russia keep coming everyday even to take our euro-jobs. The government said that they will not for 7 years when they joined the european union, they forgot to tell us that it didn't apply if the companies went to take them from russia into Germany! We don't have many people from India, but many Turcs. If they join the EU, there will be no euro-jobs but cents-jobs.
>You are lucky to be in America, there are a lot of well paid work there.
I might be lucky to be in American for some reasons, but not for well paid work - not today, and especially not in the technology sector where I work. It's a scandal here how American companies are outsourcing everything - hiring workers in Russia and India for development work, and many other countries for manufacturing (China is a big one). Then they try to come back and sell us, the Americans, goods that we no longer can pay for because we have no jobs!!
Our idiot president (don't get me started) says moronic things about how the cure for unemployment is to educate people. Hello? The people who are unemployed are highly educated, highly skilled people who can't get jobs because companies are hiring overseas and getting tax breaks for doing so. Sorry if I'm ranting - I'm not sure which gets me more hyped up, the dangerously stupid megalomaniac we have for president, or the outsourcing of American jobs.
I've heard the situation is bad in Europe as well. I have a good friend in France who is a very skilled developer and his business has tanked in recent years - never worse.
I washed in cold water, which is not ideal, but better than not washing at all. Probably when the boiler repair people get here they'll turn off the water completely.
I just called the super again. He said he's in front of the building waiting for the heating company to arrive to fix the boiler. The heat was coming up, but still not hot water. Apparently I'm not going anywhere for a while. :P I can't wash myself or the dishes, but I could make my bed.
This sucks. :( I don't like calling a client when I feel dirty and I'm not dressed - puts me in a bad state of mind.
Not a day so far quite the way I would like it. Universe please take note!
Was up half the night with upset gut and awoke eventually late feeling not good. Having just finished bronchits this is not fair!
So done so far
Up prayer reflection
emails
post
phone voluntary work project to say not coming.
clean bathroom floor (the floor does need quite a bit of cleaning to make up for the last 14+ years)
bath and wash hair
wash up and tidy up in kitchen
So I got up again and felt quite a bit better and so I've:
cleaned the kitchen floor
written my journal
gone through a load of paper and thrown it out - (I'm a hoarder and for the last whenever I've been getting rid of stuff.)
done some more research on my overseas trip (and not noted it down!)
done more research into new furniture bed, sofa, etc.
talked with good supportive friend on the phone
so now a little more paperwork
prayer and reflection
bed and sleep
date oops
It took me until now to notice that Milo's subject said "September" instead of "October". I fixed it.
ha ha!
It took 36 hours of posting before anyone noticed!!!!!!!
(no, I didn't do it deliberately, I just think it's funny that noone noticed till now!).
Silly me :D
pro's last check-in - 11:15pm
I need to find out what the NYC Housing Authority requires for apartment heat. This apartment has always been cold. I called the super 1.5 hours ago. The requirements he told me (1) don't make sense, and (2) I'm not even getting that much heat. I need facts to get action on this.
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found it
I found the heating code on the NYC Web site. The super did get it backwards, but the heat usually comes on in the morning so it's probably set right. The temperature outside is exactly 55 degrees, which is the cut-off. That's why the heat wasn't on when I called him earlier. Now that it's after 10pm, they don't have to provide heat unless the temperature drops below 40.
Often the temperature in my apartment isn't 68, though, even when the heat is on. That's because I'm on the top floor and my apartment is especially drafty. If he adjusted the furnace to make my apartment 68, all the other tenants would be roasting. Technically it's a violation in my apartment, but I'm not going to hassle them as long as the heat comes on when it should.
Brrrr!!!
That sounds like a chilly apartment!
I am not happy unless it's at least 23C (around 74F). I am a cold fish. Very little fat and poor circulation = one big baby when it gets cold :)
But I'm odd like that. Hate to be hot or cold.
Hey, I'm bored....will someone wake up already?????!!!! :lol:
I'm here!
I was actually up two hours ago because I was coughing, but I finally got back to sleep. Just now some idiot on the roof across from me woke me up yabbering in Spanish.
As for heat... I'm not especially fat, but I've never liked heat. When I lived in my own house and controlled the heat, I always kept it fairly cool.
Yay!
Well, not yay that you got woken up - that sucks...
But yay that someone is here before I sign off!!!
crossing paths
You always seem to be signing off when I'm signing on. Are you done for the night now?
I am, yeah.
I'm tired, and off to bed. Just had an exhausting conversation with DH about marketing. He's frustrated that I won't let him try some original marketing ideas (they appear cheap and opportunistic) and I'm frustrated that he won't see my ideas (which are researched from other organisers, not his industry) as being potentially successful.
So I'm tired and ready for bed!!!!!!!!!!!
How are you feeling? Got a big or small day planned?
working with your partner
I think it's hard to be in business with a spouse. There's a reason that large companies don't allow it. There's too much personal baggage clouding things up.
The only thing I have planned today is my back accounting. I tried as hard as I could to come up with something else that needed to be done first, but I'm out of ideas. }:)
Spouses & business...
Hmm..some it works for, others it doesn't. We're closer to the latter at the moment!! But we have improved immensely - I no longer end up in tears in our meetings! :lol:
We are working better together every week. Tonight I just realised we were not getting anywhere and I just said "Enough! Let's stop this conversation now." and he said "fair enough...seeya then" and walked out (not angry). A few months ago we would have stomped out on each other, fuming.
I am off to bed now. Get stuck into that accounting! You can do it!!!! I'll check up on you in your afternoon....look out!
It can work beautifully
My husband's father and stepmother ran a business together. They had an excellent partnership and got very prosperous because they had the same vision and honored one another's complementary skills. They also always confronted problems head on, immediately (they just don't get procrastination at all, btw), and assertively, even aggressively at times (but generally not toward each other). I saw them snap at each other and argue sometimes, but one or the other would always yield and let the other try it their way (not necessarily with any grace or the expectation that it would work, mind you). If the idea failed, the one who proposed it would apologize and make amends. If it worked, the one who opposed it would apologize and compliment the other. They didn't carry any grudges or smoldering resentment because everything was up front and it either worked or it didn't. They were excellent negotiators.
I think the key point here is that they only negotiated about methods. They were in perfect agreement about values and goals and what they were all about.
pro's CI - 10:45pm
I'm not dawdling on my bedtime routine tonight - that's good. I don't feel like I'm going to be able to go to sleep, though.
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*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~To Do~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
pro's CI - 10:30pm
I hope I sleep better tonight. I haven't slept well for the last three nights.
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*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~To Do~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
pro's CI - 10:15pm
I hope I sleep better tonight. I haven't slept well for the last three nights.
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*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~To Do~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
pro's CI - 9:15pm
My so-called "break" turned out to be "done with work for today". That's okay. The only thing I didn't do was go through my pile, which isn't that big - just mail and receipts from last week.
I should have known I wasn't going to get back to work because it was already 6pm, my usual quitting time. I got a late start today because I was researching something I have a personal interest in and I thought I'd make up the time, but no. I haven't been sleeping well the last few nights, and I'm tired.
The one thing I feel very good about today is that I got back to the potential client as promised - I'd written to him while I was sick and said I'd call Monday. I was professional with him on the phone, gave him a lot of good ideas, and sent him an estimate right after the phone call. These are people I've known for 15 years. I don't want to pull my usual nonsense with them (procrastinating, breaking promises, etc.). I don't want to embarrass myself. Wouldn't it be so nice to feel, for once, that I'm not behaving in a shameful way towards a client.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Ta Da~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~To Do~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
*~*~*~*~*~*~Blown Off~*~*~*~*~*~*
*~*~*~*~*~*~Rollover~*~*~*~*~*~*
Housereclaimer
2 hour IRS call [done]
The price of procrastination will be extremely heavy.
This will force me to get it together.
Need a job and would like to work from home any suggestions?
HOUSERECLAIMER
tax problems
>2 hour IRS call [done]
The price of procrastination will be extremely heavy.
This will force me to get it together.
You, too? So many of us have serious tax problems. I haven't filed returns in a couple of years because I stopped keeping up with my accounting and don't have the records to give to my accountant. Also, this isn't the first time I've done this. When I get a little behind on my accounting, I start procrastinating on it, and then it gets worse and worse. If I could pick one single thing in my life that I never want to do again, that would be it.
>Need a job and would like to work from home any suggestions?
I've worked from home for 15 years. The first 12 years I made an excellent living, though I haven't been doing that well recently. I've done freelance writing and editing (for magazines), software sales, and Web development. I've thought about helping people with their computers (and I've had requests to do it), but I don't have the patience for that. Oh - and I've done some teaching - lectures, workshops. And I have a couple different dot-coms - one selling a service (soon a book, too) and one selling a product.
What are your skills? That's the question you need to ask yourself. Also, what are your reasons for wanting to work from home? There are good parts to it (freedom, mainly), but it can be a big pain in the neck. Take the accounting, for example.
SKILLS AND PROBLEMS
My tax problems are not from not keeping up with the paper work actually I hate to admitted but my hoarding does not allow me to let things go and I have two degrees in accounting and a great tax system. My problem is that I never sat down to file out the forms since they generally owed me I put it off. You see my problem truly is compulsive avoidance. Had the software the back up and just did not submit the forms.
I also stopped working 5 years ago and lived off pension and 401 k without paying the taxes. Now I will have to file for every year I didn't from 1987 to now. Joke is I have the paper work and actually know where it is ( a great thing for a hoarder). But I don't know how many years they will take they said they might go back to 1998. Then I will also have re-file 2000, and 2003 which they filed for me with out my knowledge.
Anywho, that the tax story,
Why I want to work from home is at this time I am not physicall able to go to a job every day. I just started standing and walking in august after spinal surgery. I have one more procedure on the back and two on my knees. Plus some major dental work in progress.
Skills - so many I am ashamed to share because it shows how deeply i have fallen. IT Projectment, IT auditing, I have graduate certificate in web design from NYU (have no server side knowledge) and a coaching certificate for CoachU and I test and teach learning style techniques to kids. Oh Yeah I forgot I am a six sigma black belt in organizational development. (off the subject but I also have MS in theology that was personal just for fun) List does not include hobbies.
I really used my 53 years!
any ideas?
What should I be when I go up.
HOUSERECLAIMER
hoarding and self-employment
It's not that I don't have the information to file my taxes. I have all the paper. It's all neatly sorted into folders by account and date. I just haven't entered it into my money management program, and that has to happen before my accountant can repair the returns.
I haven't filed my own tax returns since I incorporated 15 years ago. I'd have to know as much as my very good accountant to do what he does, and I have a different career. He's well worth the money I pay him. He costs me a few hundred dollars, and saves me many thousands.
As for what you can do working at home... Since you have a lot of skills, you have a lot of options and you just have to figure out what you'd enjoy. Coming up with the "big idea" is not trivial, and also something only you can do for yourself. To put the kind of energy into a home-based enterprise that will allow it to work, it has to be something you'll love doing, and only you know what you love doing.
Don't get it
"It's not that I don't have the information to file my taxes. I have all the paper. It's all neatly sorted into folders by account and date. I just haven't entered it into my money management program, and that has to happen before my accountant can repair the returns."
I did not have to figure out ~anything~ before I gave my info to the accountant. If you have it all neat and sorted, why can't the accountant do it? Just wondering. :?
accountant info
I enter the information into my money management program, and then produce reports which I give to my accountant. My accountant would not do this for me - it's several weeks of full-time work - and it has to be done because I'm self-employed. When you're self-employed, you have to keep much more detailed records about your expenses because so many things are deductible. If you don't keep records it could cost you thousands and thousands of dollars.
That said, I am a bit compulsive about it. My accountant once told me that I had the best records of any of his clients, and because my records were so good he was able to be more aggressive with my tax returns than he could be otherwise. Because I save everything, it can be defended in an audit.
Better get started then
I 'm evil, I know. }:)
I need the push.
I've been putting it off for years. Nudge me all you want. It helps, actually. I have an uncanny ability to put it so far out of my mind that I forget about it. If I felt some urgency about it, I'd get it done.
pro's CI - 6pm
I'm going to take a break now.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Ta Da~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~To Do~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
*~*~*~*~*~*~Blown Off~*~*~*~*~*~*
pro's CI - 5:40pm
Tomorrow I need to start on my back accounting. Nooooooo kidding!!!!
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Ta Da~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~To Do~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
*~*~*~*~*~*~Blown Off~*~*~*~*~*~*
iwant2workharder CI-23:07
detailed steps 15 to 22.
Then browsed the internet.
I am now going home as I am too tired.
Good night.
good night, iwant2workharder
Sounds like you did well today! :)
pro's CI - 4:30pm
My bed still isn't made and I'm working - I hate that. But I wanted to send the guy an estimate for the work he asked me to do before 5 o'clock. Of course, first I had to come up with an estimate. I had to decide on what hourly rate to charge him (this is going to be technical writing rather than programming), and then I had to come up with a guess of how long it would take (like I know).
I'm going to go make my bed now, and finish the rest of my "morning" routine.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Ta Da~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~To Do~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
1Focus 4:32
Hey all! Haven't checked-in in a couple days, figured I'd say "hi."
I'm seeing how things go without physically checking in so much. I felt like I was wasting a lot of time on the PA website. I've set up hard copies of my routines to keep me moving. It's working out well; I had a very productive weekend and Monday. Don't worry, I won't stray too far.
Glad to see pro's feeling better and a couple new names. Welcome!
finally better
Hi! Nice to hear from you.
My temp finally returned to normal on Saturday. What a dreadful week.
> I felt like I was wasting a lot of time on the PA website. I've set up hard copies of my routines to keep me moving. It's working out well; I had a very productive weekend and Monday.
That's good! I couldn't do it, though. When I don't check in, I start wasting far more time than I spend checking in. I've tried for years to do it on my own and I couldn't. I'm very happy to have found something that works for me - I accept that I can't do it on my own.
Hard copies a good idea
Hi pro, hard copies sounds like a good idea. I tend to make a new one up every day and many if not most things are the same.
Glad you're getting better.
Regards Rexroth
pro's CI - 3:40pm
I returned the phone call of the person who wanted to talk to me about his Web site before I finished my morning routine because it was getting so late.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Ta Da~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~To Do~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
iwant2workharder CI-20:52
Oh well , website1 is really a pain. Now I understand better why I was avoiding it for so long. May be most of us avoid doing things because we sense it is going to be a real pain? Sunday was tough: I really just fed up with all the 'backlog' or postponed things ( I have a HUGE pile) I have to do.
Step14-second half took all afternoon. When finished it, I was just relivied??? :lol: :lol: :lol:
Then went home for a break :smile: , tidy a bit and back to the office. I just feel like getting website1 out of the way. Seems that I have done the hardest steps up to step 30. After, I guess the nightmare will start again. :jawdrop: :jawdrop: :jawdrop:
So far
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*Ta Da ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
- step14 ( really long)
- kitchen tidied
- quick sandwich
This evening
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*T0 D0 ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
- step15
- step16
- step17
- step18
- step19
- step20
- step21
- step22
- step23
- step24
- step25
- step26
- step27
These steps are very small files, so I hope I can stick to
10minutes/steps
Web Development
iwant2workharder - Are you self-employed, or do you work for someone else? I'm self-employed, and I've had a terrible time pricing my work because I'm so bad at estimating how long things will take. I always underestimate, and sometimes that can have me earning $5/hour for my work (or less). I saw from your posts that you have a bit of this problem, too - don't anticipate how long things will take. It's very hard to estimate accurately with programming. You can't know what kinds of problems you'll encounter until you start doing it.
and then, of course...
...there are the stupid problems.
I once lost 5 hours trying to find a bug in my PHP code that was driving me crazy. Do you know what it turned out to be? In an if-statement, I had used a close-parens ) when it should have been a curly bracket } and on my laptop monitor I couldn't see the difference!! :O
scarlett CI 2:36 pm
Amazing how Mondays can drag and fly at the same time.
Last night: bedtime 2 am (target 11 pm)
This morning: wakeup 8 am (target 7 am)
Already done:
eat breakfast
take pills
REVIEW SCHEDULE
check voicemail
catch up on reading (10 min)
discuss presentation
lunch appt
research plastic film
confirm pickup w/ D
To do:
Frog 1
Frog 2
review weight tix
fill out survey
email Peter re: V next steps
brainstorm for presentation Wed
slate - what happened?
process emails (15 min)
Wilson – what happened to windows? Call K.
update start/finish grid
Postponed:
confirm pickup w/ D (need to go see first)
Tonight:
make/eat dinner
feed cats/scoop pan
dance
call LB
pro's CI - 1:15pm
I'm trying to get back on track (after falling into a deep hole of doing something interesting when I should be doing something else). I turned on the water for a shower, but it seems there is STILL no hot water. That's how I got so sidetracked in the first place (right - blame it on the boiler). I really need a shower. :(
Housereclaimer 2:30PM
Pro
heat up a large pot of water on the hot plate not to boiling but to comfortabe. pour it in the bathroom sink of a large basin stand on a towel, wash yourself down with one soapy cloth, rinse yourself off with another in my neighborhood it's called a "whore" bath. We had furnace trouble in our building but not much we have a hundred and eighty apartments and no heat no hot water makes folk very ugly!
anywho,
todos for now
eat [done]
washed dishes[done]
Get out of jammies [done]
call IRS
call make knee appt [done]
call make back checkup appt[done]
work clearing on the master bath floor
Journal on breaks
HOUSERECLAIMER
water situation
Eh - could have done all that, but I washed with cold water. Woke me up. :P
I don't know what the water situation is now. I haven't checked since I got off the phone. I'll take a shower before I go to bed.
pro may be god is saying you something?
Hello Pro,
Plumbers always know how to make themselves needed, don't they?!!
They could have come early and by now you would have had a nice shower. Also, sometimes it is good that there is no hot water:
one can just stay in bed, read, write, phone, watch TV, listen to the radio, think, ... Specially as you are still ill, it is not a bad thing to stay in bed and get well. Then when in good physical form ( no illness), it makes things easier to see people...
It seems there are a lot of IT people here: it is really good. I'd like to know : is it hard for the others in IT? my experience is
people who leave do not get replaced and all the others have to take on additional work. I am actually adding translating english websites!!!
people in IT
I know a lot of computer people who got in early and made a huge pile of money. This never happened to me. :(
The person I was talking to today owns a software development company with someone who I've known for many years. I knew his partner had money (because he seems to have the option of not working), but I never knew from where... until today. Back in 1993, he was the primary developer at what is now one of the biggest software companies in the world, and he had stock options. Microsoft also used to give stock options, and I know a lot of Microsoft millionaires, too.
Why couldn't this ever have happened to me? I know so many people who were in the right place and at the right time. I was there when the computer industry was in its infancy - it COULD have happened to me - but no such luck. :(
Today, the computer industry is very different. Whether a developer is doing well or badly has a whole lot to do with what country they are in. In the US, programmers are crying their eyes out. Programmers in the US have one of the highest unemployment rates of any group because of outsourcing - the jobs are all going to Russia and India.
What country do you live in?
germany also has a very high unemployment rate
In Germany, we also have a very high unemployment rate ( officially 15%, in reality many areas reach 60% :sad: , the young and educated become expatriate in your country America).
The situation is such that we even work for 1 euro/hour ( 10 euros is 12 $) and call these euro-jobs :jawdrop: . We have no choice as most of the work is going to our cousins from poland and russia. I run a company owned by others: staffs have left and the owners do not want any new hire and the work still has to be done - Thus my translating english websites now. You are lucky to be in America, there are a lot of well paid work there. Here, it is very very hard -I tried to even get a job with the government- and people from poland and russia keep coming everyday even to take our euro-jobs. The government said that they will not for 7 years when they joined the european union, they forgot to tell us that it didn't apply if the companies went to take them from russia into Germany! We don't have many people from India, but many Turcs. If they join the EU, there will be no euro-jobs but cents-jobs.
outsourcing of jobs
>You are lucky to be in America, there are a lot of well paid work there.
I might be lucky to be in American for some reasons, but not for well paid work - not today, and especially not in the technology sector where I work. It's a scandal here how American companies are outsourcing everything - hiring workers in Russia and India for development work, and many other countries for manufacturing (China is a big one). Then they try to come back and sell us, the Americans, goods that we no longer can pay for because we have no jobs!!
Our idiot president (don't get me started) says moronic things about how the cure for unemployment is to educate people. Hello? The people who are unemployed are highly educated, highly skilled people who can't get jobs because companies are hiring overseas and getting tax breaks for doing so. Sorry if I'm ranting - I'm not sure which gets me more hyped up, the dangerously stupid megalomaniac we have for president, or the outsourcing of American jobs.
I've heard the situation is bad in Europe as well. I have a good friend in France who is a very skilled developer and his business has tanked in recent years - never worse.
moving forward anyway
I washed in cold water, which is not ideal, but better than not washing at all. Probably when the boiler repair people get here they'll turn off the water completely.
still no hot water!!!!!!
I just called the super again. He said he's in front of the building waiting for the heating company to arrive to fix the boiler. The heat was coming up, but still not hot water. Apparently I'm not going anywhere for a while. :P I can't wash myself or the dishes, but I could make my bed.
This sucks. :( I don't like calling a client when I feel dirty and I'm not dressed - puts me in a bad state of mind.
Houserelaimer 11:30
wash/teeth/hair [done]
med vitamins [done]
todos for now
eat
Get out of jammies
call IRS
call make knee appt
call make back checkup appt
work clearing on the master bath floor
Journal on breaks
HOUSERECLAIMER
Rexroth 15.41 BST
Not a day so far quite the way I would like it. Universe please take note!
Was up half the night with upset gut and awoke eventually late feeling not good. Having just finished bronchits this is not fair!
So done so far
Up prayer reflection
emails
post
phone voluntary work project to say not coming.
clean bathroom floor (the floor does need quite a bit of cleaning to make up for the last 14+ years)
bath and wash hair
wash up and tidy up in kitchen
now its mid afternoon and I'm going back to bed
Regards Rexroth
Rexroth 22.17 BST
So I got up again and felt quite a bit better and so I've:
cleaned the kitchen floor
written my journal
gone through a load of paper and thrown it out - (I'm a hoarder and for the last whenever I've been getting rid of stuff.)
done some more research on my overseas trip (and not noted it down!)
done more research into new furniture bed, sofa, etc.
talked with good supportive friend on the phone
so now a little more paperwork
prayer and reflection
bed and sleep
Take care folks Rexroth
glad you're feeling better
I hope you buy that bed soon! :)