Promises need timeframes, otherwise they are just empty words.

If your friend tells you they are doing a diet, you would not think of asking them when it commences, as you’d naturally assume it had begun or would soon.

If your child commits to studying hard for the upcoming maths test, you expect this will commence right away, and not hours before the scheduled test.

If your husband promises to mow the front lawn then, once again, there is an expectation this will happen over the coming weekend.

The point of these anecdotes is to illustrate that without an accepted and sensible time-frame, a...