Summary

The article argues that rigid planning is often ineffective due to life's unpredictability, advocating instead for general preparation and adaptability.

Abstract

The author of the article expresses skepticism about the effectiveness of detailed planning, noting that despite its prevalence, planned schedules rarely unfold as expected. The narrative begins with a typical daily plan that quickly unravels, illustrating how easily disruptions can derail intentions. The author suggests that planning gives a false sense of security about the future, which is inherently unknown and uncontrollable. Instead of meticulous planning, the author recommends a strategy of "winging it," which involves preparing for general, likely scenarios based on past experiences. This approach emphasizes the importance of experience and preparation as cumulative tools that provide flexibility to adapt to unforeseen circumstances. The article concludes that while some planning is necessary, overly detailed plans are destined to fail, and a more adaptable, experience-based approach is preferable.

Opinions

The author believes that plans often do not materialize as anticipated, leading to a shift in the day's schedule.
Planning is seen as an attempt to control the future, which is compared to a futile task, like finding one's way in the dark after drinking.
The future's unpredictability is acknowledged as both a source of hope and anxiety.
"Winging it" is endorsed as a viable strategy, which is not about being unprepared but about having a solid base of general preparedness.
The author emphasizes that experience and preparation are more valuable than detailed planning because they allow for adaptability.
A rigid plan is viewed as a setup for failure, whereas being prepared for likely events provides the necessary flexibility to handle the unknown.
The article suggests that learning from past experiences, both personal and historical, is crucial for adapting to future events.
The author advises against complicated plans, advocating for simplicity in planning to minimize the chances of things going wrong.

Screw Planning!

How many things do you plan for and they just don’t go according to the plan?

When is the last time that your plan worked out?

Planning is everywhere, everyone seems to be doing it. But each time I give it a try, whatever the planning is for, it rarely, if ever, goes the way I planned it to go. Take any normal day, I set out my objectives for that day;

Wake up at 6 am and clean myself up (done in 10mins)
Make a healthy breakfast (30min)
Do some cleaning (1 hour)
Getting ready and going for a run (1 hour and 30 minutes [written during COVID-19 allowed an hour of exercise a day])
Shower and eat some food (1 hour)
Do some work (5 hours with a break)

And we can go on and on, but you get the point… that’s around 8 hours of the day planned for.

But realistically, how often does your plan go the way you think? The alarm bell rings, and your autopilot zombie hand smashes the snooze button, “just 5 more minutes” you tell yourself. Before you know it, it’s around 10 o’clock. Now your whole plan has to shift forward 4 hours!

You’re 4 hours late on your planned schedule!

To hell with the healthy breakfast, in fact to hell with breakfast completely. Just move on to the next planned task.

“Cleaning!?”

“It’s fine, I’ll leave it for tomorrow. The house is not that messy.” I say that as an inch of dust is staring back at me.

I think you get the point. The whole plan of action that I set for myself gets completely mixed around. So, was there any point of doing a plan in the first place?

Well… yes and no would be my go-to answer, but if pressed, I’m more inclined to go with no. And here is why.

As the Cambridge Dictionary definition goes; planning is a set of decisions about how to do something in the future. The keyword is ‘future’, the point of a plan is, to be a somewhat, of a safety blanket, that makes us think that everything will be fine.

But here is the hard truth. You know diddly squat about what tomorrow is going to bring. Planning for the future is like going to the toilet in the middle of the night for a piss, without the lights on after a heavy drinking session at your local bar. There is no-way-in-hell you’re finding your mark.

The beauty and the curse of the future is the unknown. It gives us plenty of hope but also plenty of anxiety. It is unknowing that scares the living daylight out of us. And so, we come up with an illusion of knowing and having control in the form of planning.

But as aforementioned, your plan very rarely goes to plan, and this is exasperated the more complex the plan is. There are many more chances for things to go wrong.

Me personally? I’m more inclined to “winging it”. Now before your judgemental stares, pierce me through my monitor, hear me out first.

When I say, “winging it”, I don’t simply mean going in blind and seeing what happens (though I definitely do that as well). What I actually mean is, having a solid base, prepared for the general things that could happen tomorrow/future.

The Cambridge Dictionary definition for preparation — the things that you do or the time that you spend preparing for something (getting ready). Now the beauty is that life events tend to repeat themselves, not always quite the same but generally in the same ballpark.

With this in mind, the more experiences you expose yourself to and learn from (that’s important for this process to work), the more prepared for future events you are. Experience and preparation are cumulative, they add up.

In other words, you are ready for more than you think. The process of planning becomes a wasted exercise. Now not all planning is bad. But a rigid plan is a plan that is doomed to fail. Being prepared for the most likely events, that could happen, gives you that flexibility to adapt to what is happening on the go.

As the British Army saying goes, “Adapt and overcome.”

Prepare for the most likely events, based on your past knowledge and any other knowledge that you have. Create a ballpark plan of action, allow for the unknown and be flexible enough to adapt to what’s happening in front of you.

Because the one thing that you can be 100% sure about, is that whatever the plan is, something will come up that you did not plan for. Learn from your past as well as the past of others, use it and adapt it because the past tends to be repeated in the future.

Don’t waste your time coming out with a complicated plan, there are more chances for it to go wrong. Keep it simple, it’s easier and quicker to fix.

Thank you for taking the time to read this article. I hope that you find it both entertaining and informative. If you have any questions or you just have something on your mind, feel free to leave a comment.