I was slow getting up this morning, and unlike previous days, I didn’t have a blog entry “in the queue” and ready to go for 9 a.m. I’m now typing this at 8:50, and odds are I won’t get much useful content done because I’m doing this at the last minute. There’s a lesson to be learned here, yes?

This is why, when I get or give myself an assignment, I try to jump on it in the first minute, rather than wait until it’s nearly due to expect some brilliance to occur. It doesn’t work that way. I don’t have the time to edit this, either, so there could be spelling or grammatical errors. I’ve tweaked the title a little. I added a hyperlink, but there’s the clock ticking away: 8:54. What can I possibly do or say now that will add to this? My blood pressure is rising, and I feel irritated with myself that I didn’t start sooner. I should be formatting this thing, right? Making it neat and pretty? But no. Now I’m trying to throw in as many brilliant thoughts as possible and hoping that you’ll get some value out of this post. 8:55. I used to write papers in college this way until my grades started to slip. Planning matters, and for good planning, I need some time to think and work through all the possibilities–the structure, the main points, the tone and content. What are you getting now, when it’s 8:57 and I’ve got three minutes to be useful to you? Not as much structure. Perhaps a whiff of BS. A product not nearly as polished. 8:58. Another problem with not having the time to plan is not having the time to think other thoughts. If I’d started this at a more leisurely pace, I might have had other ideas instead of scrambling around in my head for the last few minutes trying to add some bit of trivia that will meet my minimum word count. Crikey! 8:59. Any last thoughts on this? If you want to produce a good writing product, it’s better to give yourself the time, which means writing as soon as