Having long been a master of the Habit of Procrastination, and dealing with the ensuing frustration, I made a decision this morning.

Writing two blogs each week is not a big task and is, generally, something I look forward to. It has long been my habit to write my Wednesday blog either on a Tuesday evening or early Wednesday morning and my Saturday blog either on Friday night or Saturday morning.

There have been many occasions when other commitments have kept me out late on a Wednesday or Friday night and while Saturday, being a weekend day, affords me the luxury of a little extra time, Wednesdays are workdays and writing a blog before heading for the office does not make for an orderly start to the day.

There is a certain spontaneity to my Saturday blog that does allow me the luxury of waiting until the last minute but Wednesdays are a different story.

As you know, the theme for Wednesdays is habits and I write about the same habit for three consecutive Wednesdays which means I know well in advance what the topic is and yet my gift of procrastination causes me to leave my writing until the evening is well underway.

Last night, however, things were different. I arrived home around 6 PM leaving myself just enough time to go downstairs and attend our monthly condo board meeting.

That meeting began at 6:30 and ended at 9 PM allowing me time to go back to my home and complete work on a presentation I am delivering this morning.

I finished my presentation at 11:45 and it was at that moment I was reminded that Wednesday was a few minutes away and, not only had I not written a blog, I had not yet even thought of the habit to write about for the following three weeks.

It was then I realized that my brain had turned in for the night and that unless I was willing to post a blog that looked like this: ekvhrog erndf jeusdmw keoxje, I was not going to get one done before calling it a day.

That was when I made a decision. I have promised myself for a long time that I would create an inventory of future blogs that would be available to be used in a pinch and that, every fourth week when I began writing about a new habit I would get a head-start on the following two weeks to break the cycle of last-minute panic.

Now I know you’re thinking “skip a week, or two or three – nobody would care.”

Sadly, I would care for reasons I will share with you when I introduce a new habit three weeks from now.

Today I would like to introduce The Habit of Planning Ahead. I do not have much experience with this habit as I only adopted it a few minutes ago but as I do not intend to have a repeat of last night’s sleeplessness with blog topics bouncing through my head like waves frantic to reach the shore, I made a commitment to myself to break the curse of last-minute anxiety and build that inventory of blogs for future use.

And I have already put into practice The Habit of Planning Ahead by getting a head start on next week’s blog and the one for the week following that.

I’m a pretty stubborn person which means I probably will stick with The Habit of Planning Ahead despite yearning for the good old days of procrastination. I must say that knowing that next week’s blog is almost complete provides a feeling of calmness I am enjoying at this moment.

I don’t have a lot to say about this new habit yet but I invite all of you who live your lives with The Habit of Planning Ahead firmly entrenched, as well as those of you who feel married to procrastination, to post your comments and thoughts on the value of this habit for all to see.

And if you can’t find the time to do that this week, then please plan to do so next Wednesday.

Let’s make a habit of meeting like this.