What is the purpose of keeping a planner? Maybe it’s best to be flexible and spontaneous, right?
Well, the two aren’t mutually exclusive. You can plan ahead and be flexible and spontaneous. In fact, I find that being organized and efficient with what I have to do helps me clear up time and energy to do more things that are spontaneous.
So let’s talk about some of the benefits of writing things down in a planner:
Proactive, Not Reactive
Planning helps put you in control so you can be proactive in your decisions, instead of reactive. This way you set yourself up for success, avoid mistakes and sidestep any major pitfalls. There will always be some unavoidable challenges, but at least you can clear away the avoidable ones.
Productivity
When planning, you can think ahead about the most efficient and effective way to get something done. When it’s time to get things down, you can simply look at your plan and follow that. Your energy can be focused on doing rather than thinking. This will cut down on the amount of time it takes you to get things done.
Time Management
If you’re thinking about something a few days, weeks, or months in advance, you get a better idea of when deadlines are coming up. This will help you decide when to get started on something and how much time you need to spend on a given project.
Stress Relief
Knowing there is a plan in place is a secure feeling. Keeping a planner also trains you to understand how much you can get done in a day. That way you can set manageable goals that don’t overwhelm.
Goal Setting
Part of planning is clarifying and setting goals. These can be small (“What are the top three things I need to get done today?”) or they can be huge (“What are my 10-year career goals?”). Having clear goals give us focus and motivation.
So Why Don’t We Plan Ahead?
A study by PsychTests.com in 2021 tested a group of “planners” and a group of “go-with-the-flow” types. The planners scored higher across all categories, including flexibility, goal-setting, and self-motivation. If planning ahead is so awesome, why don’t we do more of it? I think there are two big reasons for this.
First, we think if we make a plan, it must be perfect and we must follow it exactly. But really, a plan doesn’t have to be perfect to guide us, and we don’t have to follow it precisely for it to be helpful.
Second, no one ever taught us how to plan, so we don’t always know the steps. You might think that planning is an innate talent that some people have and some people don’t. But really it’s a skill that can be learned and practiced by applying small changes.
I think Ryder Carrol, the inventor of the bullet journal method, is a good example of this. As a young boy, he was behind in school, then later diagnosed with ADHD. He has described the thoughts in his mind as trying to catch rain in a storm. This might not exactly be the picture that comes to mind when you think of someone who is plan-oriented. But slowly he developed a system that helped him plan ahead, along with thousands of other people.