today vs tomorrow

The One Time To Procrastinate

As I recently admitted, I am prone to procrastination. I keep a calendar that is more flexible than a gymnast, constantly pushing back tasks that I just don’t feel like doing. If putting things off until tomorrow was an Olympic sport, I might win a gold medal (and I would also be very concerned about the future of the Olympics. Don’t get me wrong, I am thrilled to be representing my country, but I can’t help but wonder why the Olympics are letting in such random events).

However, there is one thing that I struggle with pushing out until tomorrow…tomorrow’s problems.

Before you think that last line was just another classic Adam typo, think about it. Do you ever worry about tomorrow’s problems? Of course you do. We all do.

We spend most of our today worrying about tomorrow. We worry about tomorrow’s test, tomorrow’s task and tomorrow’s talk. We spend many of our current 24 hours thinking about our next 24 hours.

Worry, worry, worry. It can become quite a burden.

If there is one thing we need to learn to procrastinate about, it is tomorrow’s problems. If we can only learn to do that, we will have more time for today’s problems. Author Max Lucado says it best:

Meet today’s problems with today’s strength. Don’t start tackling tomorrow’s problems until tomorrow. You do not have tomorrow’s strength yet. You simply have enough for today.”

When our minds start to wander toward tomorrow’s problems, we need to learn to push those back a day. Those are okay to bump from today’s to do list. That will give us more strength to take on today’s worries.