So finally spent some time over the weekend to finish this book by Dan Ariely....it ultimately answers my question why I feel like an shopaholic and always procrastinate over difficult decisions.

Starting this year bright and beautiful in honoring my todo list.

A few things from this book...

1. Working mentality has changed. For genY, we are working more over overtimes, over weekends and even during holidays.  Work, life & balance is pretty hard to live up to nowadays.  I came from a finance profession in HK and this is pretty true.  It seems there are unlimited responsibilities that could be added to the role, on top of what you already have before you sign the work agreement.

2. Procrastination + Shopaholic.  Being a working female, we could often find excuse to buy, to shop for an extra pair of shoes.  I find the rate of new items purchased often outweigh the amount of room to store them.  And therefore I have problems clearing the wardrobe for new items and probably need to giveaway the old ones. I have tried to set limits every week but ultimately still managed to take a bag home everyday after work.  I believe this is the power of procrastination, to stop spending until tomorrow, next week, next month, next pay day....etc.  While the book has illustrated the reasons of our purchasing power very clearly, it is up to us to stop the spending and save more.  There goes, with Christmas, end of year sale, new seasons, all this festive seasons is a threat to my credit card plus the "excuse" to buy more to honour our efforts in work in 2013.  This book further explains how we grow attached to items we see over the window displays which help me to know myself a little better.

3. Keeping doors open.....I do admit I kept a lot of doors open, especially in terms of jobs and careers.  When I have decided to move from Sydney to Hong Kong, I have many different pros and cos, in general thinking if it doesnt work out I could always return to Sydney.  In order to make sure I won't give up and turn back, I made sure i clean out my room, I quit my job and buy myself an airticket for the trip.  Although my parents would imagine I probably won't last 3 months, ultimately i am still here in HK, charging on and writing this blog.

So this is a few pointers I got from this book.

A few reference links:

http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_ariely_on_our_buggy_moral_code.html

http://www.amazon.com/Predictably-Irrational-Revised-Expanded-Edition/dp/0061353248