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28 Elul 5763 - September 25, 2003 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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Home and Family


Procrastination is the Thief of Time
by A. Ross, M.Ed.

After the summer holidays, when they are all back at school, I will attack this basket full of little bits of mending. After the Yomim Tovim, I will... After Pesach, I will...

Will I, really? WilI I give Motty the regular attention he requires? Will I sit and read a story to Shimi every night as I promised him? Will I see about the orthodontic treatment that the two girls seem to be needing?

Our year is made up of events and landmarks, which are happy or unfortunately, sometimes sad. Before the baby, after the baby. Before the daughter's wedding, after the wedding. Two different periods of time. There are times when a busy, tired mother just cannot push herself further. Times when she has brought six tired little children from the park, fed them, bathed them and got them into bed, and then allowed herself to flop onto the couch. She is, after all, not a machine, but a human being, and she has been on the go all day.

However, procrastination -- pushing off essential tasks for a time when she will feel less pressured, seems as futile as running up a huge bill at the local grocer's. She will never have too much spare time while she has a house full of little people and big people. There is never enough time in the day and the tasks are endless -- thank G-d!

For those women who still use the iron, if they see that a shirt is missing a button, it will only take a couple of minutes to sew it on, Then and There. The pile of sewing will be almost insurmountable if left till after the... But a stitch while playing a game with the children before they go to bed doesn't seem such a chore.

When you have a dozen children of various ages, each with their own demands, it is a rare mother who can juggle the twenty-four hours of the day to fit it all in. Thus, some procrastination is inevitable. If a big supermarket order arrives in the house and you decide to put it away later, you may be sorry. Cleaning up the spilt sugar, wiping up the broken eggs and sweeping away the split peas which went everywhere when the toddler was left to his own devices takes far more time than putting things away immediately.

We push off paying the bill at the grocer's for as long as we can. Unfortunately, there is often not enough money left at the end of the month... two months... a year. It depends on the patience of the grocer.

Some people run up bills because it is more convenient for them to pay a lump sum at the end of the month. They know the check will be covered. Furthermore, they do not trust their small children with money, so having a charge account seems the most sensible thing to do. However, there are many people who do not have the wherewithal to pay for all the items they buy. They always have more month left at the end of the money.

People who see the trap they are falling into, sit down together, husband and wife, and work out what comes in and what they spend. If they see that they spend more than they earn, they have two options. They could try to earn a little extra in some way, or they could attempt to cut down on their expenditures. There are people who run gemachs who give excellent advice on how to live within one's means. They all explain that pushing off the payements just does not work!

It seems that some people are by nature procrastinators, and others are by nature so impatient to get things done that they want it done yesterday. If they ask someone to post a letter, regardless of the fact that the letterbox will not be emptied till the morning, that letter has to go into the box right NOW. They pay their bills the day after they arrive, because they are inherently incapable of putting things off for a few days. Like most people who go to extremes, they can be difficult to live with. However, after reading this, the procrastinators will continue to say, "After..." and the others will no doubt continue to hustle themselves!

 

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