You can create a timer object to delay the execution of a function. Here is an example:
SecondFunction = @() disp([' ... ' num2str(toc) ' seconds have elapsed ...']) ;
TimerHandle = timer('StartDelay',2,'TimerFcn','SecondFunction()') ;
tic ;
start(TimerHandle)
disp('Hello, I am going to be busy for about four seconds ...')
pause(4) % ... busy ...
disp(['Now it is ' num2str(toc) ' seconds later, so ... Goodbye!'])
