gistfile1.rb

# This example is pretty overkill, just illustrating the concept

module Delayable
  def delay(attribute, opts)
    # maybe we do additional timing stuff here, like UTC
    send("#{attribute}=", opts[:by].from_now)
  end
end

class Post
  include Delayable
  
  def publish
    delay :published_at, :by => 24.hours
    save
  end
end