Having a plan in advance is not enough on its own. You also have to carry it out in the right place and in the right way. If you cannot bring the two together, the final result is zero. If that sounds abstract, let me give you a real example, and the example is me.
A month of groceries
This happened only a few days ago, around the 13th or 14th of March. I suddenly realised that the situation in the country was not good because of the coronavirus, and that a state of emergency could be declared any day, shutting everything down. So I thought I had better buy the essentials before any announcement came. If I did not buy now, prices would double and triple the moment it was announced, and some things might not be available at all.
So after talking it over at home, on the 15th I bought about a month’s worth of everything: fish and meat, oil and lentils, onions and garlic, eggs, salt and sugar, soap, Dettol, vegetables, the lot. If they would not let us leave the house, fine. No problem, at least one month was secure.
The announcement came the next day
The very next day, the 16th, it was announced that all educational institutions would close for a while. Wonderful, I was delighted. That afternoon it suddenly occurred to me that this was the chance to go and visit my village home. It was a completely spur-of-the-moment decision: I would go to the village, and that same night I was off to Rajshahi. I stayed there a few days and then went on to the village, and the day after I arrived came the next announcement. The army was being deployed on the roads, and ordinary public transport was suspended until 4 April.
My groceries in Dhaka, me in the village
Now the whole country is shut. And my carefully planned stock of food is sitting in Dhaka. Here I am in the village, nervously going to the shop to buy this and that, and eating as I go. Every now and then I scold myself: why on earth did I come to the village?
That is the end of the story. The lesson? I told you that at the very beginning.
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