How to start? Here are 10 easy-to-follow steps:

1) Set up a date to meet with your accountant, if you use one.
2) Schedule time on your calendar to work on your taxes (and only your taxes in this allotted time). Be sure to keep the appointments.
3) If your accountant has given you a worksheet, read it through carefully it so you know exactly what is needed.
4) Pull out all of your papers and divide them into categories. Print the documents that are on the computer or copy them onto a USB or CD for the accountant.
5) Sort the papers again, this time into subcategories. For example, you might begin with a stack labeled clients and gradually whittle it down to a number of individual clients.
6) Write down your questions so you do not forget to ask themyour accountant or a knowledgeable source.
7) Call for the documents that are missing.
Label each stack of documents, using binder clips to separate them. While all of these stacks may not be needed for the accountant or the IRS, it helps to stack them in an organized pile.
9) Put in as much energy and time as needed to finish the job on time. Forego weekends and week nights, if that is what it takes.
10) Make sure the government office signs a receipt and returns it to you. Keep the receipt in your tax file. If the IRS later on says that they never received your taxes, you have the proof that they were sent. This happens more than you may realize.

Now sit back and relax while your friends and colleagues scurry around in panic mode trying to meet their extension dates because they put their taxes off. And you didn’t!

Email is the #1 problem almost every business person deals with daily. It’s too easy to become so engrossed in email that an hour — or two — has gone by and you still have not gotten to the important tasks that day.

We recommend using a timer or your phone to keep track of time. How do you manage the time you spend on email?

Dr. Piers Steele defines procrastination as a tendency …

“to voluntarily delay an intended course of action despite expecting to be worse-off for the delay.”

Dr. Steele’s definition is a good one, and we agree that procrastination can put a person in a bad spot. However, if everyone procrastinates from time to time, how realistic is it for us to deny it? Are we just setting ourselves up for failure and guilt by promising ourself never to procrastinate?

In the spirit of “we all do it anyway”, let’s make the best of procrastination. Here are tips to make your procrastination as useful as possible.

Tactic #1 — Do something enjoyable

Taking a break to do something you like (Spider Solitaire anyone?) is a great way to switch gears from one complex task to another. To make this brain break successful:

• Plan for it: “When I am done with ____, I will do _____.”
• Enjoy the heck out of it. “Woo-hoo, new high score!”
• Limit the time spent there: “I’ve got 15 minutes, I better make it count.”

Tactic #2 — Procrastinate productively

When you have a large, multi-step task to accomplish, it can be very difficult to get started. How many times have you stared at a blank screen and just sighed? Minimize the screen and spend 15-20 minutes doing some productive procrastination. Try these techniques:

• Name the emotional beast that is causing your procrastination: fear, perfectionism, stress, distractions. Once the beast is named, it can more easily be tamed.
• Make a list of all the steps involved in completing the large task. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.
• Schedule appointments with yourself to complete the tasks, and keep those appointments.
• Update your To-Do list. Free your brain from all the random tasks you are trying to remember and you may find it easier to focus on the task at hand.

Tactic #3 — Plan an Unprocrastination Day**

Step One: Go ahead and procrastinate, just keep a list of all the items you are actively and willfully procrastinating.

Step Two: Set aside an entire day to perform all the distasteful, dreaded, or just plain boring tasks on your list. Race against the clock to accomplish the tasks. Strive for completion, not perfection.

Step Three: Celebrate at day’s end with the reward of your choice.

Are you ready to procrastinate productively now? No? Maybe later then.

**Thanks to Real Simple Magazine (April, 2011) for this genius idea.