Deadline Overload

Ever since I've been working from home, I have been driven by deadlines. Deadlines to file information, to pay bills, invoicing, payroll, month end, year end, GST and PST to name a few.

The months have been flying by because I just don't seem to have the ability to catch up. It is taxing to always feel like you are behind on something.

The backlog has infiltrated life outside my home office. Personal goals and deadlines are last in the priority of claims. I feel like a superhero when I simply keep up with laundry, cat litter, restocking groceries and fighting the never ending battle of cat hair in some manner.

Don't worry about me. Oh, no! I could write the book on self care. When I have free time, I sit in it and just let my brain relax watching my favorite TV shows, lose myself in a Freecell Solitaire marathon on the computer or sit back and savor a phone-coffee-date. I can calm the stress waves coursing through the recesses of my mind like nobody's business.

Except ... I somehow forgot about the deadline to purchase an RRSP. Me. A person who worked in the banking industry for almost 30 years. RRSP time was the busiest time of year for us. No holidays could be booked. We had to have all hands on deck. RRSP time was marked in my mind in permanent marker. Or so I thought.

I somehow confused the expiry date of an investment and the deadline to file income tax with the RRSP deadline. There was something niggling in my mind about this date. But I kept assuring myself that my investment matured long before the April 30th tax deadline. I was fine. No need to panic.

Then came Sunday.

I had indulged myself in all the TV and solitaire I could manage for a day. I wasn't in the mood to start a big job. So I installed my income tax program and plugged in my numbers. I would calculate my taxes with and without the RRSP contribution for comparison. It was then and only then, when I realized my investment expiry date had nothing to do with the RRSP deadline. I had ONE week to make an appointment to take care of this matter.

I have been meeting and beating deadlines for the better part of a year. And I almost missed my own. In fact, as I tried my best to make an appointment to tend to this matter, I may have just missed it altogether. 

"Trust the pause" is my motto. There could very well be a reason I missed this deadline. Only time will tell.