I’ve come in for a bit of stick recently from some of my readers. It was fully deserved, admittedly, but a bit unexpected nevertheless. Nothing terrible, I hasten to add, it’s just that questions have been asked. Interestingly, it wasn’t for something I wrote. I could understand it if I’d unwittingly offended someone with an ill-considered remark, particularly during one of my little rants. But no, this was for something I didn’t write. And what I didn’t write was this year’s “Abersoch Open” blog.

For those unfamiliar with the event, the Abersoch Open is an annual golfing tournament, fiercely contested by a bunch of enthusiastic, though not necessarily hugely talented, golfers. I’ve been taking part for eight or nine years now and over the past few years I’ve written several blogs about it.

The Abersoch Open blog is something of a diversion from my usual blog, insofar as it has absolutely nothing to do with business continuity management. I realise that some of you might contest my assertion that my usual blog has anything other than a tenuous link to the subject, but with the Abersoch blog I don’t make even a veiled attempt. I write it mainly for my own, my golfing pals and Mrs Oz’s amusement. So the thought didn’t really cross my mind that my “normal” readers (i.e. those with an interest in business continuity management) might read it too, let alone enjoy it. It turns out that I was wrong.

So why didn’t I write one this year? I have no excuses really. I did intend to do it but I just didn’t get around to it. There was a lot going on at the time and other stuff just sort of got in the way. So I put it off and put it off and it never really got to the top of my things to do list. And, in all honesty, I didn’t think anyone would miss it. Wrong again. Then there’s the memory thing. I used to have one. At least I have a vague recollection of having one, but I seem to have mislaid it (see also 20/20 hindsight).  I did scrawl down a few brief notes during the event and, full of good intentions, I did have a quick look at them a couple of times over the intervening months, but I didn’t do anything else with them and the longer things went on, the more difficult it was to even make any sense of them.

As a result of all that, more than six months later, the Abersoch 2013 blog remains steadfastly unwritten. And now several people have asked me what happened to it.

The trouble is I’d made an assumption, which turned out to be incorrect. Which is a bit odd really, considering the frequency with which I bang on about the perils of assumption. I’d also set an expectation that I subsequently failed to meet, insofar as just before this year’s Open I suggested that I’d be posting a blog about our exploits (see “Open season“). But then I didn’t do it, so the criticism is entirely justified.

Be honest though, we’ve all done it haven’t we? Whether it’s writing a blog or something more important, like reviewing and updating our business continuity plans, business impact analyses or risk registers; or scheduling that next exercise or test; or writing the report from the last one; or reviewing our event logs (or writing them in the first place); or completing the follow-up actions that we agreed to do. The list goes on. I can almost guarantee that most of you reading this will have something that you haven’t got around to doing. Not because you were deliberately ignoring it, but because other stuff just sort of got in the way.

So I’m not alone in my tardiness. But at least in my case I’m not putting my business at risk. I am, however, going to blow the dust off my Abersoch notes next week, with a view to finishing that pesky blog once and for all (assuming, of course, that something more important doesn’t get in the way). Can I suggest that you have a quick look at your to do list too, and do whatever it is you’ve been putting off – before it’s too late.