Do It Now - William Atkinson

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Do it now. Do today's tasks now. Don't try to
do tomorrow's work today, but be sure and do the
day's work now. The painful effects of procrastination not fair
to yourself, demmoralization attendant upon putting off things. The world

(00:24):
looking for people who can do things now. If you
have anything to do, do it. If you have any
task to perform today, do it now. If the matter
cannot possibly be performed today, stop bothering about it and

(00:45):
get to work doing the things of today. But don't
get into that miserable habit of putting off things until
later in the day or later in the week. Do
them now. The old proverb procrastination is the thief of
time is true, but it does not go far enough.

(01:11):
Procrastination is not only the thief of time, but the
thief of energy, the thief of efficiency, the thief of success.
We have had much to say about living in the now,
about not dwelling in the past or fretting about the future.
And all this is true, and I will probably say

(01:34):
it over and over again during the year, because I
believe in it and wish you to get acquainted with
the idea. But living in the now does not merely
mean the thinking of the thoughts of to day, the
carrying of the burdens of to day, the meeting of
the problems of to day. It also means the doing

(01:58):
of the work of to day. To attempt to carry
last year's burdens or next week's burdens to day is
fully of the worst kind, as you well know. But
it is equally foolish. To put off today's work until tomorrow.
Is not treating tomorrow right, not giving it a chance.

(02:22):
The self of tomorrow is not exactly the self of
to day. That is, it has grown a little and
is the self of today, plus the added experience of
the day. And it is just as selfish for the
self of to day to attempt to throw his burdens

(02:43):
upon the self of tomorrow as it would be for
you to attempt to throw your burdens upon your brother
or sister. It is not only selfish, but it is
hurtful to you. It impedes your growth. Today's work is
set before you because of the lesson it contains, and

(03:04):
if you refuse to accept your lesson, you are the loser.
You cannot get away from the task. It will be
placed before you again, and again until it is performed,
and you might as well do it at once and
get your lesson at the proper time, and not be

(03:25):
compelled like the schoolboy to catch up in his work.
By putting off things until tomorrow, you are simply heaping
up troubles for yourself tomorrow, as tomorrow's own work will
have to be done as well as your leftover tasks,
and the chances are that neither of them will be

(03:45):
done properly. There is no sense whatever in this habit
of procrastinating. It is fully of the worst kind, and
not only in the immediate effects. Is procrastination hurtful. One
one of the worst features of the case is the
demoralizing effect it has upon the whole mental attitude of

(04:09):
the man. It cultivates laziness, indecision, shiftlessness, slackness, and many
other undesirable habits of thought and action. It manifests itself
in numberless ways. In the character of the man who
has allowed himself to be tangled in it. It impairs

(04:30):
his efficiency, affects his value. Then again, you are really
unfair to yourself. If you get in the way of
putting off things. You never have any time to yourself.
If you have a number of old matters demanding your attention.
The man who procrastinates is never able to spare time

(04:55):
for mental improvement because he always has some old loose
end to wind up, some old tangle to straighten out,
and he loses all idea of the value of time,
of getting the most out of every hour, every minute.
The procrastinator is the veriest drudge. He has his nose

(05:18):
to the grimstone all the time. He never has any
time he can call his own. He is a slave
to his own habit of laying things aside. Poor man,
I am satisfied that half the failures of life, yes,
three quarters of them, are due to the failure of

(05:41):
persons to do the thing now, not only because of
what they lose directly by this habit, but because of
the effect it produces upon their character. The shiftless habit
of thought manifests itself in action. The thought and action
long perceient in will lead to a demoralization of the

(06:03):
entire character of the individual. He soon forgets how to
do things right, and that is where so many people fail.
The world is looking for people who can do things,
and who can do them now. If you are one
of the procrastinating kind. Start in at once and get

(06:27):
over it. Put up a sign before your desk, your
sewing machine, your work bench, or wherever you spend most
of your time, and have these words in big black
letters on the sign. Do it now. By carrying the
thought of this now way of doing things and letting

(06:49):
it manifest itself in action as frequently as possible, you
will find that before long your entire mental attitude regarding
work as changed, and you will find yourself doing things
when they should be done without any particular effort on
your part. The mind can be trained and taught to

(07:12):
do things right. It needs a little courage, a little perseverance,
a little will power, but the result will pay you
for your trouble. Start in to cure yourself of this
bad habit. Start in at once, Do it now.