2017-06-30

A long time ago, people did a lot of their cooking over an open fire. It's no surprise that the pots and pans picked up a layer of soot, so their outsides were black. That's where the old metaphor comes from: "the pot calling the kettle black". In case it's not obvious, it's used when someone talks about another person's flaw, when he has the same flaw himself.

That's what I'm doing now. You see, I'm a procrastinator. I'm always waiting until it's almost too late to do things. You're the same way. It's possible you're even worse in this way than I am.

You need to work on fixing that. So do I, but I'm a lot older than you; I may not have time to retrain myself to get things done as soon as possible. I know I should, but knowing it isn't the same as doing it.

The big benefit to doing your work right away is that you end up having less work to do. That's not true for every task; writing a paper for school is about the same amount of work whether you do it as soon as it's assigned, or wait until the last minute. But (say) a leaky roof is easy to fix if you do it immediately; if you wait, the roof will deteriorate, and when you do fix it, there'll be more fixing to do.

Another benefit is quality. That school assignment might require the same amount of work either way, but if you do it as soon as possible, you can spread the job out over more time, do a better job, and get a better grade.

There's a psychological benefit, too. When there's a job waiting, one you don't like but know you're going to have to do, it's like have a splinter under your skin; it's irritating, possibly even harmful, and all you can do is live with it, or fix it. Get your job(s) done, and you're free, and being free to do anything you want feels really good.

Try it, you'll like it.