Planning Overkill: A complete waste of time. It really is a waste of time. I am a huge advocate of planning. The following phrases come to mind. You could argue that they sound profound but really they lack substance:
- If you fail to plan then you plan to fail
- If you aim at nothing then you’ll likely hit nothing
- If you aren’t proactive an intentional in what you do then you will be reactive and ineffective
- If you don’t plan your time then someone else will.
Honestly, the ideas behind these phrases are why I place such a huge emphasis on planning my time.
But, in the midst of all the posts and podcasts and videos about planning your time well, (e.g. on Daily Planning, Weekly Planning and Effective Planning) I wanted to throw up this short post.
Too much planning is a waste of time. You can plan all you want, but the truth of the matter is that you lack the power to effect your plan. We all do.
No matter who you are, or what authority you have, this is true.
We simply cannot account for everything that may happen and we have little control over what will happen.
I am reminded of Proverbs 16:9
The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps.
Proverbs 16:9 (ESV)
So, planning out your day in minute and excruciating detail is likely a waste of time.
Here is the rule – the more you plan, the more specifically you make plans and the more detail you plan in, then the more opportunity there is for your plans to be wrong.
Note I do not say ‘go wrong’ nor do I say ‘fail’. This is because of a conviction that prevents me from making an assumption that my plan is right and if what actually happens deviates from that then something has gone wrong or failed. No – I was just wrong to start with.
Also, the more time you spend planning your work and life, then less time you spend doing your work and life.
Having a plan makes you more efficient and more effective, yes, but you WILL hit a point of diminishing returns.
I navigate this by targeting a middle ground.
I am responsible for how I use my time and the best way to exercise that responsibility is with a degree of intentional planning and then discipline to follow the plan. But, I am not God and therefore whilst I can plan my time, I cannot control it, so I do not plan in such a level of detail that my inevitable errors in planning or lack of discipline following through will render my plans totally useless.
This is why I do not time block day, giving every minute a job in 15 or 30 minute blocks. Instead I prefer to write a rough guide/agenda to what I plan to work on when.
This is why I do not often allocate tasks from specific projects a date when I plan to do them. Instead I prefer to allocate working on the project to a date and flag some of the tasks as active in some way to separate out a short list of tasks to work on when tackling the project.
This is why I don’t allocate dates to tasks beyond this week.
This is why I don’t allocate as many tasks as I could possibly achieve to each day. Instead I prefer to set a small number of objectives, a few more important tasks and then leave some leeway and buffer time for the things I did not anticipate.
It’s not perfect, but it works. It’s my view that to devise plans that are more detailed, more specific and encompass more and more is to assume a level of foresight and control that I know that I do not have. Therefore, Planning Overkill: A complete waste of time.
