Amayzine

Why working ahead is nice

Oh irony. That you come up with this topic, you eventually realize on a Sunday morning during a birthday party that you still need to write a piece and in blind panic check your agenda to see what time you were scheduled. Half past four. So I could breathe out for a moment. Just for a moment. If I had written this piece earlier and listened to myself, I would have enjoyed a completely peaceful Sunday. Anyway. Nobody is perfect and I certainly am not. Still, working ahead is a good idea and here's why.

It gets easier

If you do a little bit every day, the weight is better distributed. The final task is much more manageable than when you have to pack everything at the last minute all at once. Moreover, you can adjust if something is missing. Now you still have time to request and figure that out.

It brings peace

I sometimes think that I can write that ‘Today We’ (the section with which we start the Amayzine day) in the morning. Then I set it in WordPress at 6:43 AM while it is scheduled for 6:45 AM. My name is May-Britt Mobach and I am a deadline junkie. But in the meantime, I do lie awake half the night. I check if the alarm is on, if my laptop is charged, and I have nightmares about an empty website. Really, it would have given me so much more peace if I had written that piece in the evening.

It's nice for others

If your work is finished on time, others in the work trapeze can also do their work on time. I make editor Maartje and our designers Lotte and Nikita very happy when they have the time to get started with my work.

It gets better

You can hold something up to the light, think about it again, reread it. Now you deliver something you really stand behind.

You are so happy with yourself

Tips to really work ahead

  1. Think about how happy you will be with yourself later
  2. Make a good and achievable plan
  3. Reserve time for a big task and break it down into manageable chunks. For an important presentation, you don't have to sit down all at once. Why not first spend an hour on the overall idea? The next day you reserve 45 minutes for the elaboration, the day after that an hour for the filling. Something like that.
  4. Book people as soon as possible
  5. If you need others to realize something, book them as soon as possible. Even if it takes months, what is booked is booked. I have already arranged the hairdresser for December 20 when my daughters have their Christmas dinner. If I wait too long, all the other mothers from school will have booked already. Not yet now. I have also booked the boat we always sail on my birthday (December 23) through the Amsterdam canals. It's a busy period due to the Amsterdam Light Festival, so you better be early. One more tip: if you go somewhere often (like the dentist, dental hygienist, nail lady), book immediately when you are there for the next time. Otherwise, you waste time calling and making a new appointment. Moreover: you tend to postpone such a dentist visit, so before you know it, there’s a year between your appointments.
  6. Take a digital agenda
  7. Put everything in it right away and link all relevant agendas to yours. That way I even know when group 5a has a presentation while I don't even have a child in group 5a.

The beginning of the piece proves that I still have a lot to learn, but there is a will and a way.