My Goals For This Tax Season

Tax season is upon me.

This will be my sixth tax season...holy moley, time flies when you're plowing through tax returns.  Historically, tax season is a time when I stress out, break out, veg out, eat out, and let our house get out of control.  This year I've determined to set some goals, tax season resolutions if you will, to try to maintain some semblance of sanity around here.

Take care of business
I'm going to tackle each day at work with determination and vigor.  Pity parties about long hours lead to unproductive hours and that defeats the purpose of working the long hours.  I will make my daily to-do list at work and slash as many things off of it as I can each day.  I will extend grace and helpfulness to the interns that come ask questions at inopportune times, or just lots and lots of times.  I will keep trying to get over my fear of talking to strangers on the phone.  I will kick those tax returns' butts.

Take care of our money
I am very fortunate to have an employer who pays us time and a half for overtime when not all employers in our industry do that.  Thank you employer!!  Working lots of extra hours x overtime pay rate = lots of extra money during tax season.  We typically get into a habit of eating out way too much during tax season because a) we have said extra money, b) there isn't much time to get groceries and c) there isn't much energy left for cooking at the end of an 11 hour work day.   But this time around we really want to be smart about our extra money and throw as much of it as we can to debt payments.  The current target is Trent's car note and it better take cover cuz here we come.

Take care of our home
I'm not exaggerating when I say that our home turns into mass chaos between March 15th and April 15th especially.  The end of tax season is bad, very baaaad.   "But Anna," you may ask, "I thought you host a weekly Bible study and that forces you to keep your house clean?"  Well...about that...let's just say that during the spring we just hope and pray that our Bible study group doesn't open any strategically closed doors, venture past the kitchen into the den or look in the general direction of the floors...  We also have a very understanding group who offered to share host duties last tax season.   But anyway.  This chaos at home stresses me out and parks a giant cloud over my attitude, so I have determined to try to keep things under control.  I'm not talking deep cleaning, I'm just talking damage control.

Take care of  myself
One thing I am meticulous about during tax season is going to bed on time and I am determined to continue that.  When you arrive at work at 6:30 am for 2.5 months, you have to make sure you get enough sleep.  So after 9:00 pm, you will see no more of Anna Pie.   I've got the sleep thing down, since it is my superpower after all, but I need to work on a few other things.   I need to exercise and I need to eat normal food.  I am planning to go to Jazzercise on Saturday mornings and Tuesday evenings at the very least.  I am also going to grocery shop regularly enough to have some fresh fruits and veggies, yogurts, cheeses, good sandwich meat and healthy snacks around at all times.  I will not become addicted to french fries like I did last tax season.  I will not.  I will not.

So, here's to my sixth tax season.  I need to bust out the construction paper and make a new tax season countdown paper chain...