Tick Tock…

“YOU may delay, but time will not”- Benjamin Franklin

You may have seen the title of this article and wondered why I chose that. Well, for one, to get your attention and another is because it basically sums up what this article is about -Time.

A lot of times, we are more concerned about petty thieves and armed robbers stealing from us, so we do what we can to protect our valuable material acquisitions from theft, but we tend to forget that on a daily basis, we entertain what some people call the professional thief -Procrastination.

Procrastination is the thief that steals time, dreams, opportunities, and joy -the things that money cannot buy. We entertain procrastination when we major on the minor. This means that we know the correct thing to do, but don’t do it. Instead, we do what we ought not to be doing.

For some of us, the cycle of procrastination begins with the tap of the snooze button and from that moment on, everything that needs to be done, gets pushed back a few minutes, an hour, a day or even a week as the case may be.

Procrastination has robbed a lot of us of the valuable time we will never get back. It has shut doors that opportunity, fate, and fortune so generously opened up to us. However, we can nip this professional thief in its bud by making a conscious decision to keep perspective and overcome it. 

“Nothing is less productive than to make more efficient what should not be done at all”- Peter Drucker

Sometimes, this stealth monster feeds and thrives on our hesitation, which is mostly driven by fear of failure, rejection, and instability.

To overcome procrastination, keep the main thing the main thing. Set your priorities with a timeline, according to the order of importance, and act on them. Procrastination distracts us and though it may keep us doing something engaging, it will have us doing nothing productive.

If you have been thinking about making that call to someone you care about, do it now. If you need to go for a medical check-up, do it now. If you need to change any aspect of your life or take a different route, decide today and act on it. Do not wait until the last minute to turn in your project or execute an official assignment. Some people will argue that they are more productive when they put in work just before a deadline. I don’t think that should be a thing of pride, least of all, what one should attribute to strength. I think giving in to procrastination is a sign of weakness and a bad habit that should be curbed.

I’ll leave you with a few quotes.

Benjamin Franklin: “Don’t put off till tomorrow what you can achieve today.”

Horace: “He who has begun, has the work half done.”

May the LORD help us rid the spirit of procrastination before it, in its proficient disguise, robs us of our destiny.

Nkem Onwudiwe is the founder of Her Network – A Global Inspirational and Lifestyle Platform created to inspire and encourage all women to stand in their greatness and set real-life examples by living their truth.