When, If Not Now?

Everybody procrastinates, and everyone hates it. Much ink has been spilled to teach people how to stop delaying work. Here, I want to offer a logician’s view.

There are certain tasks that I want to do, but there aren’t clear deadlines, for example working on a hobby project, reading a book, or learning how to play a new song. I might write those down in my notes, thinking to myself: I’ll get to them when I get some free time.

But when I finally have some free time, I start to find excuses. I’m a bit tired right now. Maybe in an hour. Why not tomorrow?

The thing is, if at time t, I have the chance to do a thing, but I delay that to t+1, then by induction I am never going to do it. In other words, if I’m ever going to do it, it might as well be now.

It is always now or never.