Procrastination is the Thief of Time!

As I sit at 11pm on Saturday night writing the blog that is going out Sunday morning, I remember the innumerable times that I have ticked off my daughters for leaving things to the last minute… be it their assignments or studies or even buying gifts or shopping for clothes!

Since I started writing this blog from 6th August 2023, I initially had a stock of 2-3 blogs, which was then down to 1 and then for last couple of months, I would write the blog sometime on Wednesday or Thursday so that I could give it finishing touches on Saturday, upload and preview it. Then come Sunday, I just had to publish and circulate it.

But this week turned out to be unexpectedly busy Wednesday onwards at work, then I had some challenges on medical front and for good measure, pre-committed social engagements and the result is that – here I am at Saturday night without a single word written!!

As I stared at the blank Word doc, I remembered this subhashitam –

न हि कश्चित् विजानाति किं कस्य श्वो भविष्यति। अतः श्वः करणीयानि कुर्यादद्यैव बुद्धिमान्॥

na hi kaschit

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It means –

न हि कश्चित् विजानाति         - no one knows

किं कस्य श्वः भविष्यति।          - what will happen to whom tomorrow.

अतः श्वः करणीयानि           - hence the tasks that are to be done tomorrow

 कुर्यात् अद्य एव बुद्धिमान्॥   - the wise do today itself!

Life is unpredictable! Life is fragile! So rather than postpone things to tomorrow, it is wiser to do them today.

Of course, “today” has time, space and effort restrictions, so you cannot complete everything today… but there are typical tasks that we procrastinate… I will start exercising after my exams, I will meet/call a friend/family member tomorrow, I will push today’s study plan to tomorrow and cover 2 days in 1 day itself, and so on…  

Secondly, at times we leave things for the last minute, confident that we will be able to complete them considering our ability and time availability. But then something unplanned suddenly happens – say a medical emergency and the time you had kept for shopping for the party outfit is no longer available to you! Then we start blaming God, destiny, others (usually Mom!!!), or we get overwhelmed at having too much on our plate or we end up doing the task sub-optimally.

Instead, isn’t it wiser to push yourself a little and get it done well in time itself? Because no one knows what tomorrow may bring!