The power of now: Why a stitch in time saves nine

Some time ago, during a sultry noon, suddenly I noticed that the stitch at the lower seamline of a splendid dress had got snapped. To mend it manually, it needed merely a few moments. On that lazy noon, I felt languor and lassitude in the labyrinths of my mind, so I decided to put it off for days.

Soon, sloughing off slothfulness, I started scouting for my sleek haberdashery kit, where I stockpile needles/threads and such other sundry stuff. After having sewn it, I was feeling super chuffed about myself. Since I knew, had I simply ignored it, the small rip would have slowly stretched wider by snagging on my feet and, subsequently, would have made me go in search of a skilled street tailor to stitch it up with stark finesse. Literally, a stitch in time indeed saves nine!

Recently, a friend’s progeny was preparing for a particular day, which promised the possibility of a plum career. In a hard plastic file, she had placed all pertinent documents in proper order, except for some printouts, which she had planned to take out from her personal computer the previous day. But somehow, it had got slipped off from her, and so did the job. Even today, she feels, the printouts could have played a phenomenal role, as they had the proof of her potent acumen needed for the post. If only she had not been bitten by the procrastination bug.

Interestingly, a paternal relative, a pernickety person who keeps pettifogging even with piffling details, has this proclivity for perfection in everything he does. His life philosophy has been, “Now or never!” Whether a crevice in some corner of his house or a chink in a window curtain, he instantly gets them neatly cobbled up. This is to preempt
the possible exacerbated damages in the future.

Well, doing things ‘then and there’ truly facilitates being totally organised. Be it mindless home chores or mind-jangling job chores, the more we manage to postpone, the more the stress keeps menacingly magnifying and mercilessly gnawing at our minds. That apart, the initial teensy chores, if not tackled right then, can get terrifyingly piled up over time, translating itself as terribly tough, titanic tasks. So, surely, a stitch in time saves nine, no, ninety-nine (hassles)!