If I believe the world will be destroyed during the next year, the near reaction would be to quit the job, sell everything I can, and enjoy the money while I can. Luckily, most people who share this belief don't do that.

But there are also long-term plans, such as getting more education, protecting the nature, planning for retirement... and those need to be done in far mode, where "but the world will be destroyed this year" can be used as an excuse. -- I wonder how often people do this. Probably more often than the previous example.