Anticipate Sooner

The trick to successfully avoiding last-minute scrambling is to anticipate the problem sooner.

If you see a challenge a week out instead of the day of, you’re going to have so much more time to prepare for, adjust to, and solve a problem. The day it arrives, you’ll be in great shape, without a worry in the world.

For example, I’m writing this post a week ahead, because I know I’ll be backpacking today. Time was, I’d be frantically scrambling on a Friday to write a Friday post and a Saturday post – as I’m packing to walk out the door.

The thing is, there’s an essential prerequisite to anticipating a problem sooner.

Space. Mental space.

You need to have your basic mental and physical needs met so that you can have the freedom to anticipate a situation like this – even a small, easily solvable one. So often we are all in crisis mode, only able to react to what’s right in front of us. In those times, there’s no way we can spend any mental energy on anticipating problems a week down the road – let alone a month, a year, or more.

It’s a privilege to have that mental space to be able to anticipate, and it’s worth working to create that space in your life if you don’t have it already.