New Delhi, July 18 -- On 28 October 1787, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart sat drinking with friends when someone reminded him about a missing overture. The premiere ofDon Giovanniwas hours away. Mozart calmly sat down at midnight and composed the entire piece in three hours while his wife kept him awake with stories. The orchestra played it brilliantly, and the audiences loved it, never knowing how close they came to having no overture at all.

This midnight miracle captures a simple truth: procrastination and genius often go hand in hand.

Throughout history, humanity's greatest minds have turned delay into creative strategy, producing masterpieces under extreme pressure or using strategic postponement to enhance their work.

Far from being a ch...