Not Now, Later.

"Not Now, Later."

They say that, ‘failing to prepare is preparing to fail.’ Most people don’t understand what this means until they’re 6ft deep in worksheets, marking, revision and deadliness that are looming over their heads. And I mean literally looming – stacks and heaps of papers, books and guides laughing as the gravity of your mistake finally becomes clear – you failed to prepare, and now you’re preparing to fail, all because of three simple words: “not now, later.”

This load of work could have been avoided - you could have had everything under control: papers marked, notes made, facts learnt, but no – that football game was more important than those lectures you needed to watch, right? As well as all of those hours spent scrolling up and down Instagram instead of scrolling through texts, right? Deciding which filter to use on Snapchat instead of which medium to use for notes, right? Precious time spent in your bed under the covers instead of on your desk under your books, right?

Wrong.

We often get carried away by that devilish temptation of, “not now, later.” It’s a song we sing; a lullaby that soothes us into this state of laziness, ease and absolute disinterest towards beginning our work; we’re in love with its melody, its tune and its notes – we’d love it even if we hated it – anything to get us out of work. It’s a safety blanket that we wrap ourselves in, its warmth drowning us with its soft words of, “not now, later.” The blanket engulfs us, whispering promises of the amount we’ll get done as soon as we’re finished with our break – a break that ‘coincidentally’ seems to last forever. It’s a comfort meal - something we know we shouldn’t be having but we can’t help it – we’ll burn off the fat, just “not now, later.” We fall into its predatory caress as it slyly sneaks up on us, this toxic animal of procrastination, irresponsibility and nonchalance – and us, the ‘stronger’ mammals, we are helpless against it.

But are we?

Where we ever?

What would have happened, had we refused this temptation of “not now, later” with the faith that the accomplishment of our work first is the better option? What would have happened had we covered our ears to this tuneless, mind-poisoning lullaby? What would have happened had we thrown the blanket off, embracing the cold but knowing that it would have taken us further than the warmth ever would have? What would have happened had we just taken the healthy route – the route where we know wholeheartedly that the outcome cannot hurt or hold us back in any shape or form?

I’ll tell you what would have happened. Those papers would have been marked, those notes made and those facts learnt. Those lectures would have been watched, those texts revised, those notes organised and those books thoroughly understood.

Stop failing to prepare. Stop preparing to fail.

It’s not later - it’s now.

Remember that.