I tried to do a google search to find what % of taxpayers get a refund. Getting a refund is actually an incentive to file early, rather than waiting until April 15. I had to write a check, so it actually made sense for me to wait, but mine were actually file non-electronically, so it was just a matter of a post office run (and not on the 17th when it would be crazy busy). I made some attempt to help level load the USPS branch (I was served by a kiosk on a Sunday afternoon).

We probably can’t go so far as to designate 10 different filing dates around the year by SSN, because all of the required tax reporting (company W-2′s, financial statements) are all built around that annual batch processing. This adds major cost for everybody involved, I’m sure.

Easier to ID the lack of “heijunka” than it is to fix it.

there are other ways of tracking actionable commitments, and frankly I think you’ve picked the email inbox as a strawman: it’s clearly the worst way of keeping track of stuff. What if the title of the email isn’t enough to remind you what the actionable item is?

the problem with a calendar is that you need to be constantly scanning the previous few pages for actions that you fully intended to take but, for whatever reason, didn’t.

Fair enough, put reminder popups into your system if a task is KIND of time dependent: like realising in March that May will be a good time to be researching home insurance renewal options… but if you ONLY put that action into your calendar you’re making a commitment to absolutely procrastinate about that task until it comes back into your life – until the reminder pops up – and THEN you’re making a commitment to interrupt yourself when the time DOES come.

I see the validity of mapping out your time to make sure that you’re covering all the bases you want to cover – but don’t complicate matters by erasing things from your next-actions list: when you do your mapping make sure to not lose the tracking function.