“Tomorrow is another day” is the final iconic line from “Gone with the Wind.” When Rhett Butler apparently closes the door forever on Scarlett O’Hara, she breaks into unaccustomed tears but then tells herself she’ll find a way to win him back, saying, “After all, tomorrow is another day.”
Sometimes, when I’ve had a rough day of work, when I’ve spent hours, for example, finagling with the end of an article and it still comes out garbage, I’ll go to bed confident that morning will deliver the words I want. This tactic almost always works. That sleep scrubs away the fog and debris from my tired brain and gives me a fresh pair of eyes.
I learned that trick late in life, but I’m grateful I learned it at all. Several times, for instance, this “tomorrow philosophy” has prevented me from sending an email that would have hurt or angered another. A night’s sleep, and I delete those careless words, ashamed of having written them in the first place.
On the other hand, “Tomorrow is another day” becomes a negative when we make the future a dumping ground for those necessary duties and chores, great and small, we wish to evade. We’re familiar with the adage “Never put off tomorrow what you can do today,” but let’s face it, many of us instead favor the twist Mark Twain gave that maxim: “Never put off till tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow just as well.”
Recently, for instance, my granddaughter told me that she had submitted her application to a liberal arts Catholic school that follows the Great Books model of education. All that remained to complete the application were seven essays, most of them short.
Sensing procrastination, I offered to sit her down in a room with pen and paper and monitor her for three hours while she wrote out answers to four of the questions. She looked at me as if I’d just proposed three hours of waterboarding and beatings.
She’ll get the essays done – she’s bright and a scholar to boot – but she’s too young to realize the truth of another aphorism, “Procrastination is the thief of time and of joy.” Putting off a project causes more headaches and worries than tackling it and getting it out of the way.
Moreover, punting duties and obligations into tomorrow can have dire consequences. Our nation’s debt load, now $38 trillion and rising, offers a macro example of the dangers of dithering. Both government officials and citizens at large recognize this debt load as a growing mountain of TNT that will someday explode, yet members of Congress lack the willpower and the courage to bring federal spending under control. They see budget cuts as political suicide, angering voters deprived of their benefits and freebies.
Personal procrastination can also deliver some heavy, and even fatal, punches. Postpone a colonoscopy too many times, and you run a much higher risk of late-stage colorectal cancer. Put off making amends with that grandfather you’ve refused to see for a decade, and death may steal him away before you’ve mended the rift. Avoid the books until the night before finals, and you may fail that American government class. Drag your feet, and that woman you’re attracted to may soon be out of reach forever.
Help in this battle is readily available. Many tips on avoiding procrastination are at our fingertips, all boiling down to setting goals for ourselves, then breaking the task into small parts with specific daily objectives.
A walk-in bedroom closet that has become a collecting ground for clothing, shoes, and junk offers a practical, hands-on example of this approach. Putting that closet in order is on your to-do list, where it remains undone day after day because you keep stalling.
So, take a different approach. Set a timer for 15 minutes, get to work on the closet, and when the buzzer sounds, knock off for the day. Repeat the process the following day, rearranging some items, pitching out others, and cleaning the shelves as you go. Two or three more sessions, and the closet passes inspection, which is when you realize that all those weeks you spent fretting and putting off the job required but an hour of your time.
And suddenly, tomorrow looks a whole lot better.
Jeff Minick is a father of four and grandfather to many. A former history, literature, and Latin teacher, Jeff now writes prolifically for The Epoch Times, American Essence Magazine, and several other publications.
This culture article was made possible by The Fred & Rheta Skelton Center for Cultural Renewal, a project of 1819 News. To comment on this article, please email [email protected]. The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of 1819 News.
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