????老話說得好，今日事今日畢。命運常常垂青大膽行動者。但我們有時候是不是太草率了，目的只是為了顯得更有決斷？

????從隨大流的交易員到試圖控制損失的政客，“多數時候，我們應該慢點行動。等得越久越好，”新書《等待：延遲的藝術和科學》（Wait: The Art and Science of Delay）的作者弗蘭克?帕特諾伊說。作為圣迭戈大學（the University of San Diego）的法律和金融學教授，他在書中鼓吹“扼住延遲的喉嚨，為我所用。”

????當然，我們必須明確區分推遲和真正的拖延。“拖延是意志薄弱的表現，沒有任何好處，”加拿大渥太華的卡爾頓大學（Carleton University）心理學教授蒂姆?皮切爾（參見他的網站procrastination.ca）說。拖延就是“我知道應該去做但不愿去做，即使心里明白最終還是躲不過”，就因為能拖一會是一會，舒服一秒是一秒。比方說，你到4月14號還沒有報稅，但還是熬夜看電視直到午夜（美國個人報稅的截止日期是每年4月15日——編者注）。

????但如果時間非常緊張，有時“延遲也是可以考慮的一個選擇，”帕特諾伊說。“我們總是推遲做某些事的時間。這是人之常情：先做某些事而推遲其它的事。如果我們偷懶了，或者搞錯了事情的優先順序，那才需要反思。”

????下列四種情況下，推遲也許是正確的選擇。

1. 需要掌握更多信息。

????確實，有些項目永遠卡在了調研階段。但如果還沒有掌握那些影響整個結構的細節就開始寫報告，顯然是不明智的。帕特諾伊的研究對象包括記者。很多記者坦承：“對，拖延對我來說是個大問題。”但實際上他們很清楚寫800字的文章要多長時間，他們總能在截止時間前留出剛剛好的時間來寫作，只是為了確認引語和數據。“這是記者重要的職業技能，”帕特諾伊說。“他們的直覺是不要馬上動筆。因為還沒有掌握足夠的事實材料，所以需要花些時間去觀察，去理清思路，與人交談。”

2. 問題也許會自行解決。

????這聽起來也許是一廂情愿的想法，但高管們認識到，多數時候下屬報告的問題要么隨著時間推移不在成其為問題，要么不需要親自花費寶貴時間也會得到解決。推遲提出解決方案也是一種選擇，因為這樣就可以看出這個問題到底多重要，同時也可以鼓勵中層經理自己想辦法。

3. 還有更重要的事情要做。

????因為要安慰、關照剛剛受到欺負的孩子而推遲洗衣服不叫拖延，那叫知道輕重緩急。

????Never put off for tomorrow what you can do today, the saying goes. Fortune favors the bold. But, in the interest of seeming decisive, do we sometimes act too fast?

????From traders following the herd to politicians attempting damage control, "In most situations, we should take more time than we do. The longer we can wait, the better," says Frank Partnoy, author of the forthcoming book Wait: The Art and Science of Delay. In it, this professor of law and finance at the University of San Diego advocates "grabbing delay by the throat and using delay as a tool in your life."

????A distinction must be drawn between putting things off and true procrastination. "Procrastination is weakness of will," says Tim Pychyl of Carleton College in Ottawa, Canada, who also runs the website procrastination.ca. "There's no virtue in it." Procrastination is when "I know what I ought to do and voluntarily don't do it, even though I know it will come back and bite me" -- because not doing it feels good in the moment. Think watching TV until midnight on April 14, even though you haven't done your taxes.

????But if time is ultimately limited, then sometimes "delay is just another variable that you need to take into account," says Partnoy. "We're always putting things off. That's our natural state -- to be doing some things and putting others off. What we should feel bad about is if we're being lazy, or doing the wrong things today or putting off the wrong things as well."

????Here are four occasions when putting something off might be the smart thing to do.

1. You need more information.

????Sure, some projects get stuck in the research phase forever. But it's not worth starting to write a report if you're missing details that will shape its whole structure. Partnoy studied journalists as part of his research. Many said, "Oh, I have this terrible problem with procrastination," he recounts. But, in fact, they knew exactly how much time it took them to write an 800-word story, and they were trying to get the right quotes and figures right up to that amount of time before a deadline. "It's part of your professional skill," says Partnoy. "You develop this intuition that the right thing to do is not to start writing right away. You don't know enough, so you take some time to observe and process and talk to people."

2. You think the problem might go away.

????While this sounds like wishful thinking, managers soon learn that the majority of problems direct-reports mention to them will either go away with time, or can be solved without you actively investing your scarce time in them. Putting off proposing a solution can be a way of seeing how important a problem is, or of encouraging a mid-level manager to put out her own fires.

3. You have more important things to do.

????Putting off the laundry because your teenager needs support after a bullying incident isn't procrastination. It means you have priorities.