When to Prepare? EARLY!

TIME MANAGEMENT, PART TWO

I am summarizing the book I am reading called "How to Have a 48 Hour Day", by Don Aslett. The chapter that has been the most inspiration to me is called BE EARLY.

So, When should we prepare? Early!

The author states that there's no such thing as too far ahead and that being ready in advance is sure fun and comforting.

So how do we apply this to our day to day lives?

As soon as we are aware of something looming in the future that we will have to prepare for.... start preparing. Several things come to my mind.... Christmas, Tax Time, the baby shower I promised to help with, a Sunday School Class to be taught, an annual anniversary trip, a family member's birthday, etc. These things could be a year from now, a week from now or tomorrow. Start preparing now!

This is a good idea not only for bigger things, but the day to day little things we do. For example, prepare everything you can for a meal ahead of time. This past weekend I was in a time crunch and had a few hours available on Saturday morning. I boiled chicken, cooled it and deboned it for use in Chicken Pot Pie and chicken salad to be eaten the next day. I cooked a cake, cooled it, decorated it, placed it in the cake plate and refrigerated it. I got out the bowls, baking dish, ingredients, etc. needed for the chicken pot pie and had them ready with the recipe book open to the page I needed. This way there were no surprises. If I was out of an ingredient I had time to purchase it.

These are examples the author used for preparing early:

1. When he was going on a trip, he put his suitcase out a week before and casually started putting things in it all week. When the day of departure came, he had no stress.

2. When he was a boy it was his job to feed the cows. Every night he would go ahead and get the hay out and ready, so the next morning, when it was dark and cold and he was in a hurry, all he had to do was spend 3 minutes feeding them.

3. If he had a book deadline 2 or 3 years away, he started working on it immediately a little bit at the time over time and when he reached the deadline date, voila, done!

4. His father ran a ranch 4 times bigger than his neighbors' ranches without any hired help. How? They never went to bed without knowing what they were going to be doing the next day. The tools and equipment were laid out for the next day's work. The machinery and equipment were serviced 6 months before they needed it, while the neighbors waited until the equipment was needed to get it serviced, thus having to wait in line at the service center.

What kinds of things can you prepare for early starting today?