Can’t It Wait?

You’ve got a ton of work piled up from last week.  You’ve been putting off that project your boss requested you to do.  You think about working this weekend but you have made plans with your family.  That project can wait until Monday.  Can’t it?

Good question!  Don Marquis said ‘procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday’.  Are you trying to keep up with yesterday or today?  Will you do the project on Monday?  Or will something else come up that you decide is more important. 

There are a multitude of reasons for why we put things off.  It could range from simple boredom with the job to complex issues of success or failure, such as a fear of rejection if it is not done perfectly, or embarrassment because it is already late.  But no matter the reason for putting it off, you must eventually do the job!  What's the alternative?

In his book ‘Carpe Manana’, Price Pritchett says that we must seize tomorrow ‘because it is coming at us with ever-increasing speed.  We need to engage it – today.  Seize its opportunities – now’.  This means that while we are busy putting things off, the world is changing, and our jobs are changing.  Next week that project may not matter because your job has changed, and you are no longer needed!  You didn't see it coming because you were worried about being behind schedule. You have been to busy to plan (and protect!) your own career. 

If you can't figure out how to seize tomorrow, at least seize today!

- Joe Freeman