Procrastination: How to Deal With it

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"Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise:

Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest. How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep? Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep:

So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man."

-Proverbs 6:6-11, KJV

Procrastination, since it is putting off things that need to be immediately done until later, is a form of laziness.

So, what does the Lord Jesus Christ, the One whom Christians, by definition, follow, say about how to overcome this slothfulness? Though the Book of Proverbs was written before God the Son became incarnate as a sinless man, since Proverbs is part of the Word of God (consider the citation of Proverbs 3:11 in Hebrews 12:5) and Jesus, though not the same Person as God the Father, is equally God in His Being (John 1:1-18), we have in Proverbs the true Counselor (Isaiah 9:6) counseling Christians. So, here in Proverbs 6:6-11, we have Christ counseling us on how to fight procrastination and our temptations to it. The Lord's guidance is simple, but true and effective: just do what you need to do right now! In our passage, laziness is pictured as sleep, with waking up serving as the picture of breaking out of one's laziness. So, metaphorically, Christ's counsel is to wake up. Literally, Jesus's guidance is to immediately do it.

So, Christian, what do you know, by the light of God's Word, that you need to do

right now? Go do it! Right now! Yes, ask God to make you do it, because nothing can be accomplished without His permission! And trust Him to empower you to do it! But do it IMMEDIATELY!