Do you ever leave a conference or workshop with a thought that will stick with you for years, even though it had little to do with the speaker’s main purpose? As an English teacher, I attended a workshop on multi-level classes that was full of useful ideas. The young, energetic teacher loved his job – contagious in itself – and held the attention of a room full of his colleagues – no small feat. His ideas were classroom-tested and doable in the most basic conditions. I know I later used some of his ideas but today I cannot name one. What do I remember? His comments on grading homework. 

“Don’t put it off. Isn’t procrastination one of the most tiring things? That weight that hangs over you, often keeping you awake and putting a knot in your stomach. Don’t you love that feeling when something less than enjoyable is accomplished and you can move on? It’s sort of refreshing, right?”  

Contrary to what my Asian students often wrote, “don’t put off till tomorrow what you can do today” is not in the Bible. Nor the word procrastination. But worry and the use of time are certainly addressed. In Proverbs we find “anxiety in a man’s heart weighs him down.” Paul writes of wisdom and time in the same breath. Make “the best use of the time as the days are evil.” David prays, “Teach us to number our days aright that we might gain a heart of wisdom.”  

I got my master’s degree through a university in the US while my entire cohort was teaching in Asia. Each time we got the gentle reminder of a project’s due date we joked that we all still had one more day. But sometimes I looked at my calendar, ignored the dishes, and wrote the two summaries not due till next week. Or responded to the stack of emails. Or made a hard phone call. I felt lighter. More relaxed. Refreshed. No spa. No retreat. This is not always possible. Triage might be necessary. But often, as Elisabeth Elliot said, I need to “just do the next thing.”