Tax Day resolutions

My habit in recent years has been to leave everything about taxes for the last minute, including the recording of income and expenses.  Last year I made an effort early on to keep on top of it, and I was successful until about May -- which made taxes a little easier this year, but next year I'm hoping to be even better about it.

I also tried to get an earlier start this year, and for the most part succeeded, although it still wasn't quite as early as it needed to be.  I intended to start on reporting the week before, but I was so busy that week that it didn't happen.  Plus, I got the sad news that my friend and trainer's six-year-old son was killed in a tractor accident and her husband severely injured, so I was distracted and not really feeling up to getting anything done for a few days.

I did get going over the weekend, and was able to finish up by late Tuesday night.  This might seem last-minute, but I assure you, it was a lot earlier than the last couple of years.  I've been pulling all-nighters or near-all-nighters for the last two or three years.

Not burning myself out on finishing turned out to be a good thing as well, as I've used the momentum to keep going and get caught up on my reporting for 2015, as well as some other admin tasks for the year.  My plan is to get all caught up and then hopefully stay on top of it this year.

I used to be much better about recording all my income and expenses, and by "much better" I mean that I did it pretty much daily, recording each payment or expense and filing the receipt right away.  Over the years I've gotten lazier about it though, and started just collecting the receipts to record at the end of the year.  Unfortunately, it makes taxes much more time-consuming, so this year I'm going to try to go back to my old habits.

How about you?  How well did you survive tax season?  Any resolutions for next year?