The Hidden Costs of "I'll Do It Tomorrow"

Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash

There’s a category of stuff (several, in fact) that I bet you put off, you procrastinate, you kick down the road, because you think you don’t have time.

And, yet, for many of those things, the opposite is actually true.  You don’t have time NOT to do them.

There are things that will cost you much more in time (and money!) if you don't take care of them in a timely way. 

They will not simply go away with time. 

They will worsen with time, and cause you more trouble and more pain. 

They are WORTH making time for.

Not convinced?

Well, I’m happy to share some examples:

• Dental work

You know what you’re supposed to do, right?  Get those 2 dental cleanings a year, every 6 months.  But you figure “it’s ok if I push this a couple of months; I’m just so busy, it can wait”

And what can happen if you wait?

Well, perhaps you get a cavity that you could have avoided.  And now you’re paying a couple hundred bucks out of pocket to fill it (not to mention a lot more time in that dental chair).

And it could get worse yet. 

What if you wait so long it’s not a cavity anymore; it’s a root canal. 

Well, now it’s not a few hundred; it’s a few thousand.  And it’s not just one appointment; it’s several.

(And for those of you in countries with socialized medicine: I’m so, so jealous.  And yes, the numbers above are correct.  I’m not exaggerating.)

You think you don’t have time for that teeth cleaning.  But in fact, you don’t have time not to go.

• Cancer screenings

At 40, you’re eligible for a mammogram. But that takes time.  And it’s a bit scary.  And it might hurt.  So you procrastinate.

At 45, you’re eligible for a colonospoy.  But that takes time.  And it’s a bit scary. And you don’t want to drink that big jug of thick liquid in advance.  So you procrastinate.

And then, instead of finding cancer at stage one when there were no symptoms and screenings were the only way to catch it, you’re diagnosed with cancer at stage 3 or 4, once you’ve got lots of symptoms and your prognosis is not so great.  

Now you’re really it it.  Instead of a 1 hour screening, you’re getting biopsies and surgery and chemo and radiation.  If your cancer is even treatable.

You think you don’t have time for that 1 hour screening.  But in fact, waiting may take ALL of your time from you.

• Sleep

Sleep is perhaps the least understood, yet most important, function our bodies have.

And I bet it’s something that you let go of when you’re busy, even when you know that’s the wrong move.

But sleep will catch up with you; you might start making errors at work that you’ll need to spend even more time fixing.

Or, what if you fall asleep at the wheel?  There may not be a way to fix that!

• Passport renewal

Renewing your passport is a pain in the ass.  Paperwork.  New passport photos.  Collecting documentation.  An appointment to schedule.  A trip to the post office.

You know what’s more of a pain in the ass?  Realizing the vacation you’ve been looking forward to, that you’ve been planning for for months is coming up shortly, and your passport is expired. 

Now, instead of following the normal pain-in-the-ass process, you’re following a different one. 

You have to do all that stuff mentioned above, plus you have to get up at 5am and go wait in line at the passport office hoping for an emergency, expedited passport service. 

You have to take a day off work. 

You have to pay an extra fee.

Or, worse yet, what if you get to the airport before you realize your passport is expired?  Now you’re doing all of the above and you’re gonna be a few days late for this vacation you’ve already paid for.  You’ll be buying a new flight because you’ve missed the first one.

What else falls into this category?  What else do you put off, to your own detriment?

Life will never magically get easier.  You’ve got to make the time. 

And I can show you how, if you’ll let me.

My program, Time Well Spent: Time Management for Real People, will be enrolling starting next week. If you’d like to be first to know when enrollment opens by joining the waitlist, or learn more about whether the program is right for you, click here.