Planning: Why It Always Goes Wrong (And How To Fix It)

If the coronavirus pandemic has taught us anything, then it’s that planning inevitably goes wrong.

Try to imagine yourself going to work by car and hitting green every single time you come across a traffic light. That’s pretty unlikely. As unlikely as making a perfectly designed plan and failing at it. 

We’ve all had to drive through that tunnel. 

This only proves how unpredictable life is. No amount of planning can compensate for that. However, that’s not true for most people.

Most folks plan out their days and hope for the best but the way they’re planning is plain wrong. They either push too many or too few tasks into their schedule and finding the fine line between too many and too few tasks is the most difficult thing on Earth. Okay, I might be exaggerating a little here.

Things Take Longer Than You Think

During my career so far, tasks, obligations, things ― whatever you want to call them ― took at least 20-30% longer than I initially suspected. You should brace yourself for this if you think that chunking specific periods in your day for performing tasks will go smoothly. It won’t. Most of the time, it’s a freaking disaster.

According to Parkinson’s Law, “work expands as to fill the time available for its completion.” Now, I don’t know who this Parkinson guy is but he sure knows to throw a punch in your face.

That’s why I use a simple principle called giving-yourself-a-bit-more-time-just-to-make-sure.

Pretty long name for a simple principle. Or is it? 

Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.

Vincent Van Gogh

This is the crux of it: Say I have a 10-page document to translate from English to German. Usually, I need 30 minutes per page, which amounts to 5 hours of work for the whole job.

Now, I never force myself to do it before the 5-hour-period expires. I often take an extra two hours. That way I give myself a bit more time just to make sure I’m not late or the client doesn’t put a spell on me. Okay, the last thing’s unlikely. Or is it?

A Mastermind’s Essentials in Planning

If you want to be a planning genius, think of the basics, not everything that pops in. 

Sometimes it’s way too tempting to grab your phone instead of creating that incredibly useful content or doing that demanding work task. Been there, done that. 

However, if you want to be more successful in… well, anything, you sure as hell need to urgently start learning how to control yourself, your urges, and thoughts. Cross that last one: Not quite control them, just be aware of their existence in your mind and then respond appropriately, rather than having the uninvited thought or emotion push you around.

There’s nothing that helps with that better than meditation, regular workouts, and learning new skills. Yep, that’s my recipe. Just these three things. Doesn’t seem too scary, right? 

The Right Way to Do It

Every single day, I meditate for 10 or 20 minutes using WakingUp and Ten Percent Happier, I take a 30-minute walk or run around noon, and I learn programming and other in-demand tech skills on Mimo. It takes about one and a half hours daily to elevate my life to a new level. It’s worth it. You can trust me ― or not. It works anyway. 

The point is that by doing all this stuff I build control over what I want to do with my day ― and just expand this control to other areas of my life. I started from meditation to working out, learning new skills, to mindfully watching entertaining content.

I simply take the focus and commitment invested in these few areas and apply them to my personal and work life. It’s like an avalanche. It spills into my whole life without me actually wanting it to happen. In other words, it’s been automated. 

Sometimes I feel like an advanced civilization has taken over my body and that I’m some sort of a test to them. Okay, I may be exaggerating. Or am I? Am I really?

If you haven’t figured out how this translates into planning yet, here’s what I mean. When you build regular daily schedules, this creates a sense of controlling how you spend your days.

If you believe that you control your focus, your time, and your days, then you will likely know how much time and focus it’s going to take you to perform tasks. On top of that, just add 20-30% more time than you think you will need to complete a job of any kind. 

We (or you), humans, like to have a sense of regularity in daily undertakings. The advice I handed over to you above has just that effect. Enjoy, mortals!

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