I never do tomorrow what I could possibly do the day after

‘I never do tomorrow what I could possibly do the day after’. An Oscar Wilde quote from ‘Only dull people are brilliant at breakfast’ (another great quote) that I thought resonated with what I am trying to do. This post comes at 9:30 mountain time from a Calgary airport hotel after flying here for work. The fact I’m writing this right now is good given the fact i’m a prolonged blink from failing my goal of 30 days in a row of blogging (and some other goals).

I think the quote could be interpreted in two ways:
1. Do not do something tomorrow if it could be done the day after because, in essence, that thing is not worth doing at all. If it can be done the day after tomorrow without consequence, then there is no urgency to it.

2. Do not tell yourself you will do something tomorrow, if you have the possibility of doing that thing the day after. Ultimately a way of combatting procrastination, do not give yourself a task tomorrow if you are not committed to it. If it can be postponed beyond tomorrow, it will be, so get it done today.

I initially took this quote to be the first definition I highlighted given Oscar Wilde’s aloof attitude towards life and anything beyond creating art, or at least it appears that way to me through his quotes. The quote can be interpretted differenlty based on how you see Oscar Wilde. I know very little so I won’t try to summarize his known writings, but I could read this as Oscar thinks nothing other than art matters at all, or he is more on self-help find your true calling type. I like the second a bit more.

In this second definition, it is similar to Steven Pressfield’s ‘The War of Art’s idea of resistance. Maybe because I read part of that book before reading the Oscar Wilde book on the plane. That book focuses on reducing ‘resistance’ and procrastination. Remembering Oscar’s quote might help in that. New tattoo?

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Read a lot today ~3 hours. No meditation. Some spanish but duo lingo keeps crashing. Slow carb except for some rice at dinner. 2 cups of coffee, 1 tea. 1 short blog post!

Photo from Paris for Oscar