Procrastination- the thief of time

I read with interest a number of articles carried in different newspapers to commemorate 125 years of Ananda College. However something that struck me most and inspired me constantly during my time in the school is its motto, “Appamado Amathapadang”. This, I think is a motto held in veneration by thousands of students who studied in this school, old and new, but nevertheless understood and followed by only a few.

This Pali edict when translated says that, “You should not postpone for tomorrow the tasks that you could accomplish today”. The essence here is to ‘not postpone what could be done here and now’ and that is in effect the avoidance of procrastination.

There is a tendency among many to consider Buddhist philosophy as having more emphasis on the impermanence of secular living but Buddha in his wisdom has made enough enunciations on how a person could lead a life of success and strength during ones present life as a basis for his Sansaric journey.

In fact the quintessence of Buddhist living is to make the best of what is available and to leave the rest to the karmic forces.Thus this motto could be of special relevance to Sri Lanka as a nation in the present context of things where we are on the road to strength and harmony after years of lost opportunity and turmoil.

As a school boy I often wondered what all this could be that is termed ‘work’ carried out by the many government departments. But now I know that that work is done to ensure proper governance in keeping with the laws of the land with the idea of improving the people's living conditions.

During colonial times, the government may have had a different purpose and that was to work within the confines of Her Majesty’s wishes. But now with the sovereignty conferred on people the priorities should be for the wishes of the people and the work thus performed should be in accordance with their wishes. However the old habits and traditions die hard. WEven in the 70’s and 80’s the government servant was a person viewed to be burdened with a ‘load of files’; many in their IN trays and little in their OUT trays.

It was never easy to get a job of work done at a government department unless you really pay for it in terms of time and anxiety. In the commercial sector, of course, since their

survival depends on their productivity and hence persons engaged therein are made to either work or bust. But in the government sector there is job stability and the results of its service, even in a democracy is reviewed only periodically and that too could be in a mire of loads of election propaganda.

Thus every man who visits a commercial establishment is an ‘opportunity’ for the establishment and called a ‘customer’ whereas for a government department every person who visits is additional work meaning more drudgery and less free time.

This makes the norm in the commercial sector ‘immediate action’ against the norm in the government sector, ‘Well, not now’. If you postponed acting on a job you receive today by one week, that means you are delaying the jobs you receive next week also by a week or even more. And this way the government sector is always behind by months and sometimes even by years. Recently the Department of Meteorology was caught napping in the face of a recent cyclone in the South.

Their excuse, as usual, is the lack of modern equipment, qualified personnel etc.. Who is responsible for ensuring that the key government departments are properly equipped and, on the other hand, are the people in these departments doing the best with what they have? When are we going to change this concept of a job from ‘having a means to exist’ to ‘having a job to do’? Development of a nation is certainly not just planning and executing big projects but the attitude of the community to work and a culture of work.

In Japan the workers are grateful to the company (employer) for the experience they gain than for the salary they earn but here in Sri Lanka they all want to know the salary first.

We often complain about lack of adequate resources for our progress because all of us are not endowed in the same way.

Some have land some have money and yet some of us have more influence than others. But in this milieu we tend to forget one salient resource that is available to all of us equitably and that is time. Time is the greatest resource on earth and that matters as everybody has equal amount of time.

It nevertheless is a resource that can not be lent, saved or transferred. It cannot be borrowed either. If you cannot manage your time you are not capable of managing your life. You will be ineffective, inactive and inefficient.

Time is one unique factor that you can never ever recover once it is lost and wasted. Therefore avoiding procrastination could mean adding years to your life.

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