Estate Planning

Just Do It

By Hull & Hull LLP

Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day, which means I am about to become the lucky recipient (insert sarcasm here), once again, of ‘subway flowers’. Call me a cynic, but I don’t consider subway flowers to be the hallmark (oooh – good pun) of advanced planning. See, my husband procrastinates. He’s the one frantically scanning the menu when everyone else has already given their order and he’s the guy online on the 24th of December trying to figure out who can guarantee next day delivery. I have to be honest, as someone hardwired for strategic planning, his approach truly unravels my DNA. To me, the 11th hour is the time to bask in the glow of a job completed well ahead of schedule. To him, the 11th hour is the time to put fuel in the tank for the inevitable burst of activity towards the impending finish line. The end results are the same; I just happen to really resent his methods.

He got quite smug with me last week when I came across some information that suggested he had procrastination competition in Leonardo da Vinci, of all people. According to the book “How to Procrastinate” (part of the Self-Hurt series), da Vinci’s prolific output was ‘matched only by his volume of random doodles and meandering sketches’. Apparently, The Last Supper was only finished after his patron threatened to cut off all funds. And Mona Lisa took twenty years to complete. Distractibility appeared to have been the cause of da Vinci’s procrastination. He dillied and dallied about in various fields of study, including math, anatomy, architecture and engineering. Some (the procrastinators in the audience, perhaps) may view this as multitasking; reportedly da Vinci could even paint with one hand and write with the other simultaneously. Others may perceive his widely varied interests as simply a lack of focus.

I chuckled in December when I read an item on CNNhealth.com about StickK.com, a website that offers the ‘Commitment Contract’, a binding promise by a user to stick to a personal goal or face a self-determined financial penalty. According to Yale University economics professor Dean Karlan, “It’s a contract to make slothfulness more expensive.”

Maybe I should just sign my husband up for art lessons instead…

Happy Valentine's!

Jennifer Hartman, Guest Blogger
 

Full post as published by Toronto Estate Law Blog on February 13, 2009 (boomark / email).