PROMPTNESS VERSUS "PUTTING OFF"

Thames Star, Volume LII, Issue 13808, 25 September 1918, Page 3

PROMPTNESS VERSUS "PUTTING OFF"

' One of thkmost successful of business men &aid recently that he attributed his { success to his jeariyiorined ha.bit of doang at once w,hut he^yaw ought to be done. Whelie\er a tidfcki* bigjov iittk> presented ltbejf, he gidive it has immediate attention, despatching it with. all .possible promptness.

Much mental worry 06m.es from putting off until tomorrow what should <be done to-day. A task promptly accomplished wall not bring nearly so much worry as the delayed one. It is often the delay in beginning the task that is the real cause of worry and a tired-out feeling. Moreover, apart from the nie.ii.tal and moral discomfort of dreading to begin a task, tihe work itself may 'be> harmed by the delay, and it is a bad thing for character to give way to th\e habit of putting off, even thougih, it may be concerned with the smallest task. The failure to attack obligations and the habit of worrying over them are common faults with a certain number of women, 1 possibly through lack of executive training. It. has been truly said that the hardest part pf work is "getting at it," but the task will not become any the simpler through putting off the start.. . „, life goes' much more smoothly and is much brighter when we are a:breast of our duties, and realising this, it is surely wprth while to make an effort to keep level with the work that has to be done. Letters owing to friends are sometimes allowed to accumulate to such an extent that instead of it'being a pleasure to write them, it becomes a burden. The habit of putting off attending to correspondence that must be deal with sooner or later—-and the sooner the better —is a source of: very great mental worry to,the chief person concerned, who alone is the one to'save , herself of himself from further vexation on" that particular score, but who, at the same time, is the one to increase the mental strain by continuing to "put off."

It is a. great virtue to do things punctually, and this ihaibdt will save both time and worry in the end-