Anticipate is one of my favorite words. If we think about it in terms of work and projects, it is really helpful.

Anticipation helps us plan better if we:

• Anticipate changes.
• Anticipate obstacles.
• Anticipate questions.
• Anticipate expenses.

Anticipate is another term for risk management in projects or how we might do a SWOT analysis. It is, in this case, a guiding direction.

In my personal life I like to use a blank monthly calendar grid to look at a month before it starts and practice anticipation by writing fixed appointments and events like birthdays of important people in my life, school dates, holidays and vacation dates, dates of outings with friends and even my period’s expected date.

This practice helps me estimate how much time I really have this month to make progress in my goals and enables me to set dates for some of those goals, like recording a new long-format podcast episode and so on. The monthly view also helps me keep track of my time and energy and say no to invitations that might cram up my schedule.

As the month goes by, I keep updating this monthly plan. For example, an eventful week requires a week of staying-in after, or else I might crash.

Anticipation is on my feel-good list because I love experiencing getting excited about an upcoming event. That’s why I love the word Anticipate so much; it activates the analytical planning part of my brain and also the emotional part of excitement about what the future may hold.