Most of us plan. Some better than others, but most of us plan. I am a planning obsessive. Yes, it may actually be too much; but I have this unbelievable role model in my life, so I could not be sloppy on planning even if I wanted to be. That role model is my wife.
Before I got married, I thought I was pretty well organized, and I had a pretty strong reputation as a planner. What I did not really understand before we got married, was that my wife made me look like a slacker. She is so disciplined, so structured, that she simply plans her entire day, and never (and I mean never) goes to bed until her plan is executed. Now that is the key. The key to planning is execution. The best laid plans mean nothing if we do not execute them. My wife has taught me to pay real attention to my plans, and I am better for that.
But, there is another side to this. We can plan, and must; but not all plans are what we actually end up doing. Things happen! And we can be certain that there are going to be times that we will need to vary from our plans. It is essential that we not be so inflexible that we ignore the plain fact that we must be able to shift to an alternative, Plan B, when it is called for.
Now, that is not an excuse for a daily rewrite of your plans. That is something I used to do with my Daily To Do List.” I would write it at the start of the day; and then by day end, so much was not done, that I would start all over again for the next day. Unfortunately, that meant that many of those items kept getting pushed off to another day. The key to dealing with this problem is a hybrid of what my wife does. You need to make a realistic assessment of what you should be able to do in a day, and that should be your list of goals. You can not give yourself too much freedom, but it also can not be a list that is impossible to achieve. Whatever you do, finish the realistic list.
On the other hand, make certain that you keep learning what your limits are. Keep pushing to achieve more, because if you do not, you may find yourself making it too easy to complete the list. Keep your standards high.
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