Planning for the future - at the expense of the present?

I have a confession to make today - I like planning. Planning the wedding is unlikely to make me stressed (it will be decisions, other people and money that achieve that), because if I don't have something to plan I feel a bit lost. My planning skills are slightly legendary in our family - I have been known to plan trips like a military operation!

I'm not sure if I'm a natural-born planner, or if it's a skill I learnt as a teenager. I suffered with unpredictable migraines so had to plan everything, allow contingency time and get everything done as early as possible. If I left things until the day before, you could guarantee I wouldn't be well enough to do anything that day. So I planned.

As an adult, prior to planning the wedding, I spent most of my time planning holidays and trips. I've done this so often now that's it's a well oiled routine - and generally doesn't take that long. Having said that, I still occasionally get caught out - for our upcoming trip to Tasmania it took me ages to work out the route.

The problem with enjoying planning is that you can get carried away with it. I discussed yesterday's post (about how much there is do to in the next 7 months) with my dad, who was slightly blasé about it;  he seems to have complete confidence in my ability to plan and organise five different things at once. He thought there was no reason do try and do things before January (except the invites, clearly) because it will all work out.

Which, to give him his due, it probably will. Once I get back to the UK it will be straight into full on planning mode, and the giant to-do list I mentioned will get slashed in half pretty quickly. So why am I wasting time now on things that aren't priorities and will be much easier to do in January?

I'm not really sure of the answer to that, but I think it has to do with wanting to finish everything before the deadline (as I've trained myself to do). Leaving tasks until they have to be done makes me nervous. I also feel slightly like everything is on hold - not just the wedding planning, but my career plans, the plan for our future home etc. There is so much to plan, yet nothing to plan now. Which means I should stop wasting time trawling the internet for flower girl dresses, and decided where to go for our date night this week.

In summary, I should stop planning and start living. Even if it is only temporarily, and is clearly easier said than done.