3 days ago
MONEY THOUGHTS: Wise and unwise delays
THE English poet Edward Young (1683-1765) penned these words in an almost 10,000-line poem Night-Thoughts, which he toiled on between 1742 and 1745:
"Procrastination is the thief of time."
Almost every serious student of the English language has come across Young's famous line, which is now a standalone adage for the life lesson that it's better to do important things straightaway than to delay acting on them.
Why? Well, once we fritter away time, we can't get it back.
How we manage our time — over the short-term, medium-term, and long-term — determines how our lives turn out. And speaking of life and time, I've been blessed with the singular opportunity to write this weekly Money Thoughts column for you in the New Sunday Times for a tad over 10 years now.
With very, very few exceptions over the decade due to a rare shortage of available pages because of news-heavy developments or major public holidays that stopped the presses, from mid-2015 till today, it's been my privilege to regularly write for you. This column you're reading now in the physical NST 's Sunday Vibes section or online is my 500th.
This half-a-thousand writing milestone is one I'm ecstatic about. And that's why I want to outline here for you four tension-laden lessons that are pertinent to personal success and accomplishment.
They focus on procrastination and our predisposition to delay action:
1. Procrastination is usually bad;
2. Procrastinating is sometimes good;
3. Delays usually leave us worse off;
4. Yet delaying can sometimes be incredibly wise.
ELABORATION
1. Procrastination is usually bad
Four years after the poet Young completed his magnum opus, Night-Thoughts, the English writer, statesman and politician Philip Dormer Stanhope, the fourth Earl of Chesterfield, wrote this in a letter to his son:
"Know the true value of time; snatch, seize, and enjoy every moment of it. No idleness, no laziness, no procrastination; never put off till tomorrow what you can do today."
In our present work environment, the evaporation of millions of jobs caused by the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI type 1) and robotics is building momentum. As such, we must work harder and smarter than those around us to keep our jobs or grow our businesses. Part of the secret sauce that enables us to do more than others is NOT procrastinating.
2. Procrastinating is sometimes good
Nonetheless, we must recognise that NOT everything which lands on our laps is worth doing.
So, think about which tasks and activities you carry out at home and at work that are pointless. If you're like most people, me included, you'll be able to identify some of those lower posteriorities which should be dropped off your daily and weekly to-do lists to create "space" (and literal "time") in your calendar for vital higher priorities.
As you eliminate some posteriorities, you'll give yourself permission to permanently procrastinate on things you should not be doing because they are not aligned with whatever you deem vital.
3. Delays usually leave us worse off
Note: Even as we tread the fine line between avoiding and embracing Young's "thief of time", we should acknowledge the many times accepting delays in our lives turns out for the worse.
Consider what occurs when we delay starting (and finishing) projects vital for career advancement, or avoid visiting the dentist for regular dental checkups or the doctor for annual physicals, or delay servicing our cars because we're too busy to find time for what Stephen Covey describes as "sharpening the saw" activities which aren't urgent yet are crucially important.
All such delays land us in trouble and cause us to end up in worse shape than if we'd simply completed those important tasks at their right times. As another well-known English adage tells us:
A stitch in time saves nine.
4. Yet delaying can sometimes be incredibly wise
Finally, though, here are two special instances of beneficial delays:
One of the key principles of personal financial success is delayed gratification. It always involves sacrifice, and often necessitates giving up something good for the potential payoff of something great down the road.
Think about the wisdom of opting to buy a, shall we say, too-affordable car or smaller than warranted home so as to have more money to save and invest for the future — to augment our retirement nest egg.
Another example of a wise delay is choosing to accept contract employment beyond the official retirement age — which is currently 60 in Malaysia — to be able to continue earning money for a longer period. Those who stay gainfully employed for longer enjoy two phenomenal linked benefits:
a. They elevate their lifetime earnings, specifically their active income (AI type 2), which enriches themselves and their families, while elevating their lifestyles;
and
b. They shorten their non-earning years (or decades) in retirement, which markedly reduces the possibility they will run out of money in old age.
Take time to decide if and when it would be wise to shun procrastination and delays, and when you should proactively embrace those same tendencies to intentionally improve your lot in life.
© 2025 Rajen Devadason
