I confess to having a few pet peeves. One of the most rankling is to have a request dismissed with “I’ll do it when I have more time.” This answer goes beyond being untruthful, it’s quite impossible.
As human beings, manifesting in an earth environment, we are constrained by that pesky old space-time continuum thing. Everything has its alpha and omega, be it a nano-second, a day, a year or a lifetime.
I would refer those who promise to do a thing or honor a commitment when they have “more time” to the enclosed graph and ask the simple question: At which point along your timeline does this “more time” occur?
Personally, if asked to do a thing that doesn’t fit into my plans or inclinations, I usually say, “I can’t.” If pressed for a reason my response is, “because I don’t want to.”
I’d much prefer hearing that than some vague “more time” promise.
rixlibris 
I agree and I can’t stand people that try to lecture ME about time and lack thereof. I normally roll my eyes and walk away.
By the way I can’t read this post. No time. 😉 lol
Really? No time? I thought that you were a Time Lord, Dr. Who’s younger brother, Dr. Why-the hell-not.
I’m a dragonlord this week. 🙂
True… But mostly we fool ourselves with this phrase. Promising ourselves to do something – when we have more time. Especially those wonderful things on the very bottom of our to do lists. The ones we have shuffled from one list to another a couple of times already. (Like my big box of papers to file – I usually only tackle that one when the lid does not stay on anymore.) My newest weapon against this false self-promise: I tell myself “if you don’t do it, it won’t happen at all – no one will do it for you”. Sometimes, I then grumble and get started. – But that of course does not help with other people using it as a lame excuse. 😉
Too bad self-motivation can’t be exported to others.
With all the dry timber around you need to watch that fire breathing.
I agree with the call to honesty with others and self. And there’s a presumption there that we will live to see tomorrow.
I would like to think that we could all follow what Robert Service pointed out his “The Cremation of Sam McGee”: “A promise made is a debt unpaid.” If you don’t want to do a thing, say so and if you agree to do a thing, do it. Disappointment comes from unmet expectations. The more realistic the expectations the fewer the disappointments.
So true! Time doesn’t stop. Time travels fast. Awesome post! 🙂
It’s really better to be specific. If I think it’s something that I want to do, I will give a specific time that I can attend to it otherwise, I say I can’t for xyz reason and move on.