Plan much?

Know anyone who is anal-retentive about planning? They have to plan every minute of their day out and when one little thing is off, even by a couple minutes, they go insane? Yeah, they're a lot of fun, aren't they?

They can't handle anything new or spontaneous, can they? If an old friend calls them unexpectedly one evening and asks if they want to get together and hang out, they're usually very tentative. Why? Because, they were not expecting this a day earlier. If they had known a day before, they'd think it over and get back to them. But, asking right then and there if they want to go out? That might be a little too much. Their whole day would be ruined. All they had planned for the day wouldn't happen. It's very difficult for them to put a sudden dent into their schedule like that.

Plans are essential for some things, but not everything. There are times when reservations need to be made at a restaurant or plans need to be made in advance to attend a concert or comedy show with friends. But, even in some of those scenarios, spontaneity can work. Some friends bailed on me to a concert at the last minute, but I got lucky that day. I was able to call some friends up and they were up and wanting to join a friend and I to the show. That's not always the case, but even in the tightest of circumstances, spontaneity can work.

I have found that the further in advance we plan, the more likely it is that those plans won't work out in the manner we had hoped. If we plan a week in advance, there's a decent chance things will work out. If we plan a day in advance, there's an excellent chance of things following through. If we plan a month or two in advance, that's when we typically run into problems. If it's a boyfriend and girlfriend making plans, who knows if they'll still be together in a couple of months? Heck, they might not even last a week. That's why the day-to-day plans are so effective (usually) for them.

To plan or not to plan, that's the big question for some. While it's good to plan for certain things and occasions, there is such a thing as too much planning. I find that the more we plan, the more we stress, and the more likely it is that the plans won't follow through to our liking. To plan or not to plan? Well, that all depends on many factors, one of which is the level of our anal-retentiveness with planning.