Tolkien tells a wonderful truth about time when he says “It’s the job that’s never started takes longest to finish.” Oh, how well I know this truth!!! That was not a question at all despite the wording! Considering my blog has not seen me in a while now, and comments left by readers have been unanswered for way too long, I know what he is talking about.

That said, my sincere apologies to all of you wonderful readers who read and leave thoughtful comments. I do read and appreciate each and every one. And I will start responding to comments going forward (as far as the ones I am yet to respond to, I hope to get to them sooner than later…Oops, there I go, procrastinating again, but I am going to start with the most recent ones as soon as I am done with this post and work backwards while responding to the new ones coming in promptly).

A Little More Truth About Time (or is it truths)

With that, and given the thought process that started off this post, here are a few quotes about putting things off, or to use that dreaded word, procrastination.

You’ll Love These Quotes

A Few Randomly Chosen Ones

“Putting off an easy thing makes it hard, and putting off a hard one makes it impossible.” – George H. Lorimer

“He who is begun has half done. Dare to be wise; begin.” – Horace

“How soon not now, becomes never.” – Martin Luther

“One of these days, is none of these days.” – Proverbs

“How does a project get to be a year behind schedule? One day at a time.” – Fred Brooks

“A year from now you may wish you had started today.” – Karen Lamb

“Procrastination is

• the thief of time.” – Charles Dickens
• opportunity’s natural assassin.” – Victor Kiam
• the bad habit of putting of until the day after tomorrow what should have been done the day before yesterday.” – Napolean Hill
• the lazy cousin of fear.” – Noelle Hancock
• , hands down, our favorite form of self-sabotage.” – Alyce P. Cornyn-Selby
• like going to a fancy restaurant and filling up on bread and not leaving enough room for dinner.” – Richie Norton
• the fear of success.” – Denis Waitley

And to make things lighter,

“One of the greatest labor-saving inventions of today is tomorrow.” – Vincent T. Foss

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

The couple of quotes that make me feel that I am not totally a lost case…

“The least productive people are usually the ones who are most in favor of holding meetings.” – Thomas Sowell

(I am not one of those in favor of holding meetings!!)

Using one of those ‘Procrastination is’ quotes here again..

“Procrastination is like going to a fancy restaurant and filling up on bread and not leaving enough room for dinner.” – Richie Norton

(certainly not me, for if I fill up with the bread, how can I leave room for dessert?!!)

My Thoughts

Putting off something does make it harder. And while I did have a few handy reasons ready for why I did put off posting here, I also realize they don’t matter. Plus, I read this quote:

“You can only have two things in life, reasons and results. Reasons don’t count.” — Robert Anthony

So, I need to get to the results part of it. Which is the reason (well, I had to use this word now) for this post! Putting something, anything, off just manages to kick off a vicious cycle; and somehow leads to that weird unusual rolling stone that ends up gathering more and more until it becomes a landslide of sorts. I end up feeling guilty about having putting off whatever it was in the first place, yes, of course. But there are other unexpected side effects, none of them good; they include fear, those random times I go bonkers (well, for me, it is in a silly, zombied out mode, but still), and then that unusual thing that has a fancy term for it – analysis paralysis.

But then, I sat down to write this post like I have done at other times in the past, I realize that all those side effects and that guilt too can be easily overcome. We just need to do it, like the Nike tag line!

Next up, one tall tale my teenager told me earlier today. And I almost didn’t believe him until I read it for myself.

A Tech Tall Tale

In the Belgium elections of 18 May 2003, there was an electronic voting problem reported where one candidate got 4096 extra votes. The error was only detected because she had more preferential votes than her own list which is impossible in the voting system. The official explanation was “the spontaneous creation of a bit at the position 13 in the memory of the computer”.^[1]

One likely explanation for the error was a single-event upset caused by a cosmic ray, which the voting system did not protect against.^[2][3][4]

Source: Wikipedia

Related Posts

• Sunday Scribblings #5: Where I Wonder Where Exactly Does Time Fly To?
• 5 Tips from an Expert at Playing Catch-Up

And Now, the End of This Post

Dear reader, how would you end the sentence starting with ‘procrastination is…’? Put your thoughts in the comments below. It can be anything that strikes your mind.. weird, funny, thought-provoking, serious, and all the other etcs…

“Begin doing what you want to do now. We are not living in eternity. We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand—and melting like a snowflake.” – Francis Bacon