A student asked: I always seem to finish work right at the deadline — does that mean I handle pressure well, or am I simply a procrastinator? And how should this be fixed?

Pra Ajarn explained that without pressure, one tends to be lazy, waiting for pressure before acting. What lies behind this feeling is the unwholesome, constantly whispering "leave it for later." This amounts to living in heedlessness. If the merit accumulated in the past is still strong, it often helps the work get finished in time anyway. But whenever the strength of that merit weakens, mistakes start to happen — and if left unaddressed, this habit will carry over into future lives, since the unwholesome only grows stronger over time, luring one into wasting time on entertainment — watching films, listening to music, playing games, traveling — while simultaneously working to sabotage the task itself.

The remedy Pra Ajarn recommends: once you take on a task, "hold it in your belly" — keep continuous inner awareness of it. Sit in meditation with eyes closed and maintain that awareness; even if the mind wanders or drifts to other thoughts, that's fine. The wholesome Dhamma will draw merit in to flow through the sphere of mindfulness and refine the task on its own — your only job is to maintain the awareness. During this process you may need to endure some suffering arising from old impurities, but that endurance builds fresh spiritual fortitude that becomes a shield, allowing the task to ultimately be completed with quality.

He recalled that in the past, a senior teacher in the lineage once taught the same thing: when you have work to do, hold it in your belly — don't let the mind wander off into unrelated thoughts. Sit with eyes closed, maintaining inward awareness of the matter that needs resolving. The inner knower will point the way forward, and once you act, the empowered one steps in to help generate new, better approaches or ideas than before.