It has been said, “Never put off for tomorrow’ what you can do today”. Yet there are many people who enjoy postponing things. Such people do not realize the dangers of delaying. Work does not disappear if we postpone it. The difficulty of the work does not get reduced by postponing it. The more we postpone, the more the work piles up. Finally, the load of work seems too much. We then have to work for many days at a stretch under great strain and tension. Finally we do it hurriedly and in a careless manner. It is as bad as not doing the work at all.
Again, when some work is delayed, the time which would have been profitably used is wasted. Time wasted is time lost forever. Hence procrastination, that is the habit of postponing things, is rightly called the thief of time. Precious time wasted means opportunities lost, and lost forever. By the time we realize how much time we have wasted and how many opportunities we have missed by delaying word, it may be too late. And then nothing remains for us except to regret and repent. Sometimes a very heavy price has to be paid for delaying things.
The person who delays insuring his factory will regret it when the factory is gutted by a sudden fire. Delay in the treatment of a disease may make it worse, and may even result in death. There are other proverbs conveying similar meaning. Thus we say: “Time and tide wait for no man” and “A stitch in time saves nine”. All these proverbs warn us against the dangers of delay in actions, and stress the importance of timely action and punctuality.
