Prioritization Vs. Procrastination

It was the opening lecture of a social studies class at LUMS.

The instructor marched in with purpose as the student chatter came to an abrupt halt.

After greeting the class, he turned around & started ferociously chalking in random numbers across the black board.

12, 35, 89, 8, 41, 77, 56 etc.

After covering the board, he faced the class once again & quizzically asked "Does anyone know what these numbers are?"

* crickets *

Hardly surprised, he carefully massaged his bearded chin & slowly walked across the room.

"These numbers" he said in a deep, sagacious voice, "are the ages of people when they died."

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Jaws went south.

"Clearly, you can see there is no logical pattern. That's because none of us have any guarantee on how long we live in this world.

In reality, we all stay on the edge of time - some closer to it, some a little farther away.

Therefore, if you think about it, every action we commit to is what we felt was the most important thing to do at that moment of time."

Those words taught me a few things:

1. Life is about ruthless prioritization.

2. Procrastination isn't just a bad habit. It's illogical.

3. Laying down how you decide what's important isn't optional because if everything is important, then nothing really is.

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