Gadi,
The question that comes to mind is - what do you do to be prepared?
Well, for a start you can put a comment into the ICANN comments on the new xfr policy. I did earler today. Next, you can, as some today did, decide that cache trumps authority under some conditions, and ensure that cache is controlling when some conditions exist. There are so many structural things wrong with the mechanisms this is about like asking how to write cat in perl.
I suppose that other than setting registrar lock in place, there is another thing one can do.
In terms of mechanism, this just undoes the latest change in xfr policy in the ICANN gTLD market. Instead of opt-in-after-nack-delay you go back to opt-out-after-nack-delay. It is a rational choice, but since it is, you (plural) know that your interests were not the controling ones when the policy change was debated. There are edge-case registrants who are benefited by opt-in, but if most of you (plural) opt-out, then the change in policy that affects registrants, must either be an error, or benefit some parties other than the registrants, edge-cases excluded. Mail comments to transfer-comments-g@icann.org. In fact I think I'll forward this entire set of threads to transfer-comments-g@icann.org.
Study!
Whether it's checking the expiration date for your domain, establishing contact with your up-in-line authority - registrar, tld, etc. depending on who you are.
Yes ... but ... OK. There are things anyone managing registry/registrar/reseller accounts can do, from getting all the renewal dates synchronized and tied to a date you never forget (warning, spousal birthdays not advised), and if nothing else comes up for several values of "tomorrow" I might write up. But ... Like the guy who was looking for a free solution to all the :43 formats in all the gin joints in all the world, why do you want to buy retail? You don't expect routers to autoconfig and suck up bogon filters and cough out correct aggregations for you just by the application of some electrons, so why expect to get all the nuances of the ICANN zoo, and to stay current of registry/registrar/reseller best and worst practice? Eric