A while back, I put off creating a grocery list and instead made several trips to the store throughout the week. I thought it worked out pretty well, so I did it again the next week. By the third week, I was tired of the inefficiency and sat down to plan my menus.

Here’s my new theory: planning menus is like planning what to wear during the week. If I can preempt multiple rushed trips to the grocery store, I can also preempt multiple panic-stricken visits to my closet during the week. I usually know by Sunday what my calendar holds. If I take time today to decide what to wear to each event, I can find out ahead of time what needs washing or ironing and what looks good with what. I can also take care of issues like the one I wrote about in September.

This is not natural for me. It reminds me too much of packing, which I hate. Because it’s a big change, it’s going to be my one self-improvement goal for the month.