The Principle of Anticipation

It is not necessary for activities, actions, or tasks to become urgent for you to execute them! In reality, things become urgent only because they were not done when they should have been. One of the fundamental characteristics of organized and productive individuals is a sense of anticipation.

In general, they do not wait until the last moment to complete tasks. They often do things ahead of schedule, allowing them to minimize emergency situations as much as possible. When you think about it, urgency does not truly exist. The execution of certain tasks becomes urgent simply because they are started late or because there is not enough reflection to accurately assess the time needed to complete them.

To truly benefit from the principle of anticipation, you must learn to treat different tasks as if they are all urgent, even if it is not necessarily the case. By doing so, you will greatly anticipate future emergencies and minimize them.

The Principle of Immediate Action

As the name suggests, applying this principle simply involves executing a task immediately instead of postponing it. The best explanation of this principle is: “Do not postpone what you can do now.” Let’s take an example to illustrate. You need to call your banker to schedule a meeting regarding your real estate investment project. Faced with a task, you generally have three alternatives:

Alternative #1: You execute the task right away. In this example, you immediately call your banker.

Alternative #2: You note in your to-do list that you need to call your banker and determine when to do it.

Alternative #3: You rely on your memory to remind you that you need to call your banker.

Experience with the application of this principle shows that it is always faster to execute a task than to plan it for later. This is simply because you can lose sight of your notes, and your memory can play tricks on you. As much as it depends on you, do not postpone what you can do right away.

This text is an excerpt from the book “5 steps to (re)take control of your TIME and your life” written by Henri M. Missola .