Fellow procrastinators, are you among the Kenyans that crashed the iTax system?
I went through my 2025 diary and realised that I had written down a forgotten shopping list in the December slot, yet we’re in July.
I have a confession to make. I am among the last-minute Kenyans that made the Kenya Revenue Authority system crash, forcing the tax collector to extend the date of filing tax returns. Last year, and the year before that, I almost broke my neck as I rushed to beat the deadline. And no, this bad habit of procrastination is not something I’m proud of, and have, in fact, tried to beat it for years…
My fellow columnist, Mungai Kihanya, in his article today, right there at the bottom, makes clear his dismay that KRA was forced to extend the filing deadline, rightly pointing out that Kenyans like me had all the time in the world, (from January 1, he points out) to carry out this simple task. There was, therefore, no excuse for this widespread tardiness. Obviously, Mr Kihanya is not a procrastinator…
I have a close friend who is so highly organised, it is perturbing, hers is a case deserving of a thesis. She plans for each day of the year in advance, and I was recently surprised to learn that she actually makes use of diaries, and uses them for the purpose they were intended.
As for me, all the diaries I’ve ever received (free of charge I might add because I have never been motivated to buy myself one), I use to scribble notes when I get a phone call, or write phone numbers for later reference.
Goldfish
Many times, though, I use them to doodle when I find myself in a meeting that has taken too long, bearing in mind that I have the attention span of a goldfish. As I was writing this, I went through my 2025 diary and realised that I had written down a forgotten shopping list in the December slot, yet we’re in July. This is not all, sometimes, I open a random page and scribble story ideas for this column to revisit later. In short, my diaries are for rough work, a fact that appalls my organised friend.
For my birthday two years ago, she gifted me a diary-like book with an inspiring message for each day of the week. The idea of the gift was to help me get more organised, (and in the process procrastinate less) since the book encouraged me to plan my day, months even, as well as note important dates and important things that I needed to accomplish within a certain deadline. I tried to do that the first few days, but by the end of the week, I had scribbled bits of a conversation I had with someone on phone for later reference.
The interesting thing, (disappointing is a more apt word) is that most of the time when I actually use a diary for the purpose it is meant for, for instance write things to do on a particular day, I sometimes misplace the diary, or forget which diary I wrote in, since at any one time, I have at least three freebie diaries from different companies. This tells me that diaries are not the cure for my procrastination.
Personal Assistant
My highly organised friend, still horrified at my disorganisation and shocked at how unbothered I was of this deficiency, and keen to cure me, (I explained that even though my methods were vastly different from hers, I still got things done) decided to be my informal Personal Assistant. She would occasionally pass by desk, ask me what important things I needed to do that day, and whether I had a meeting the next day or an assignment with a tight deadline.
She would then feed this info in my phone and set remainders. But you can only be someone’s unpaid PA for so long, and eventually she gave up. But I haven’t given up yet, and have challenged myself to file my tax returns by the end of January next year. Fellow procrastinators, we can do this!