Do you like money?  I do, I will admit.  I don’t love it, but it certainly makes life easier.  What I don’t like is wasting money.  And I bet you don’t either.  And yet we regularly and purposefully defeat our own plans and end up wasting money.  How? Procrastination.

A few weeks ago, I gave you the definition of Procrastination: “To indefinitely postpone or avoid performing a task out of anxiety, rather than time constraints or logic.  Unfocused wandering, killing time.”(Julie Morgenstern, Never Check Your Email in the Morning).

     Motivation for procrastination and also for action differ from person to person.  Just look at your family or co-workers.  Regardless of your motivation for procrastinating, recognize and use monetary motivation this week for action, if that helps, to break through procrastination and save or make some money!

Actual Costs of Procrastination:

• Penalties charged for late filing or payment of your taxes this week
• ATM fees when you have to use the closest ATM instead of planning ahead and using your bank ATM
• Late fees from the library (my 7 year old’s contribution) or the RedBox (!)
• Credit card interest fees for incomplete or late payment
• Late fees when you don’t pay your bills on time.  A client said our time working together paid for itself the first month she paid all her bills on time!
• Paying higher rates for airline tickets, and expedited passport fees
• Paying for costly repairs instead of maintaining what you own, like your car, or paying for car rental during repair time
• Expedited shipping, postage or delivery fees when we procrastinate in shopping
• Paying for overnight shipping or delivery when we are sending items and are now too close to the deadline to use regular shipping methods. 
• Are you seeing dollar signs in your head yet?  Are you motivated to act?  What about the….

Indirect Costs of Procrastination, or losing out on money-saving opportunities: 

• Not receiving interest on your money, if you don’t file taxes early
• Not receiving reimbursement payments until long after your money is spent, or not at all
• Not cashing or requesting checks:  A client needed to request a duplicate check for an insurance payment (the first one was damaged), and waited too long, the insurance company said No. 
• Not taking advantage of sales and discounts, or savings like early bird registrations
• Voiding warranties on big-ticket items like your car by delaying maintenance
• I own my own business, so if I procrastinate, I can lose clients or money from lost sales.
• And don’t forget about the….

Intangible Costs of Procrastination:

• Increased stress
• Loss of credibility or sympathy:  a friend is a college professor.  Imagine two students come to her in one week asking for an extension on a project.  One always misses classes, turns in late assignments or misses them all together, and one shows up to class and usually turns stuff in on time.  Who is more likely to get the extension?
• If you have certification or professional papers to submit, what about being lumped all together with the others, or even tagged as a procrastinator?  Ouch.

My goal in blogging is to educate and motivate.  My challenge to you this week is to re-read the above list, and determine if there is a task or two you are avoiding for no good reason – and “I don’t want to” or “I don’t feel like it” are NOT good reasons.  Once you identify the task, be the adult and get the task done. Or at least started, if it is a multi-step task.  A great weight will lift from your shoulders, trust me, and maybe next time you start to procrastinate, the dollar signs will flash in your head and you’ll get the job done instead!