Do it now or let it go

I used to have a system for things I didn't have time for. I'd see something I should do, take out my note, and write it down - for the weekend, for later, for when I have time. It felt responsible. It felt like control.

It was neither. "Later" almost never came, because as I get older, the obligations keep growing and the free time keeps shrinking. But the note protected me from noticing. Things written down aren't overdue; they're pending. They gave me the pleasant feeling that I had control over them. I didn't. I had a graveyard with good handwriting.

The examples pile up easily. I see a book in a bookstore and decide to buy it next time - next time, it's sold. I see someone I want to ask something, decide I'll do it later - and that person never shows up in that place again. Most chances work like this: they come once, and they leave.

When I was young, I heard a saying that stuck with me: you never read the books you own - you only read the books someone lent you, because those have a deadline. The message is clear. "Whenever" means never.

Eventually I found my real problem. I procrastinated because I was lying to myself that there would be another chance, another time. So I changed the rule completely, and the new rule is binary: if I see something I should do, I either grab it right now and never lose my grip on it, or I consciously let it go. No third option. No pending list. I broke the storage where to-dos went to die.

Letting go has a cost - sometimes I release something that turns out to matter, and the regret stings. But I use even that: the sting reminds me to hold tighter to the things I did grab.

Do it now, or let it go. Don't be greedy and try to keep everything in a "later" pile. If you're greedy, you get nothing.