Never leave till tomorrow what you can do today
One of the many weaknesses of which man must be warned is procrastination or putting off things that can be done today till a later date. There is some natural inertia in man which makes him lethargic. He knows he must work but he doesn’t want to unless he is goaded, very often leaves things where they are. If it doesn’t affect him personally he doesn’t act immediately. He would rather bask in idleness. To make him work and act many incentives are offered. Thus we see in business, what is called an incentive bonus. In regular services they are offered increments.
Man knows that putting off till tomorrow what one can do today is bad. So there are many maxims like ‘time and tide wait for no man’. ‘Take time by the forelock’; ‘Make hay while the sun shines’. These idioms go to show how society realize the value of time and doing thing in time. For time lost is a loss forever and it can’t be brought back. Hence the proverb ‘procrastination is a thief of time.’
Time is a factor which is very important, the more so nowadays. In the jet-age or the ‘Supersonic-age’ everything takes place at a speed which the ancients would never have dreamed of. A generation or so ago it took many days to reach Malaysia from India. Now it is a matter of less than four hours. In order to keep pace with the speed with which things move, man also must know how to act quickly. Suppose one has to fly on a mission or business to a distant place he has to be at the airport very early. A delay of even five minutes would see the plane taken off and his whole program would be causing a lot of chain reactions. Suppose a man fails to turn up at the hour he has fixed for an engagement he would not only lose his face but it may also tell on his future with which his whole life is tied up. The more complex and technological the society grows, the value of time grows equally acute.
Work falls in arrears, means he has to work harder and even faster the next day. This is found among students who often postpone doing their homework and wait for the weekend holiday to come. But when the holiday comes they find it difficult to sit and do their homework while their friends are playing outside. The next day they have to think of ways and means to deceive their teachers when homework has to be passed up.
There is a sense of fulfillment for those people who are punctual and regular in their work. They enjoy a guilt-free conscience. A forcibly true example is the case of health. If there is any ailment one should attend to it immediately. Some people hide their ailments only to suffer later, when it is too late. When one is regular and punctual it adds to his dignity and brings him peace at heart.
It requires principles, discipline and will power to do one’s duty on hand at once. If only one were to keep a record of idle hours it would be astounding to see the sum total of the time. One must develop the philosophy of life quoted in the ‘Village Blacksmith’, ‘Something attempted, something done, earned him a night’s repose’.
