After seeing my post Overplanning, Under Living, a reader asked how you get out of over planning mode.
I used to over plan a lot. The main reason is that planning is not as risky as actually doing and then getting judged for what you do.
How do we know if we are over planning? We want to base our planning on the importance of what we are doing.
Life planning and business planning you would want to have time and thought put into it.
Then there is a two week family vacation which you might want to plan more than you would a one-day party.
A weekly menu is planned more if you are trying to lose weight than if you are just trying to get food on the table in the evening.
A big presentation that could launch you to the next level needs more planning than a memo.
So think of your current goals and plan accordingly.
If you are re-planning your plans that you haven’t yet started, it usually means it’s time to get moving. You change plans based on feedback and what works/what doesn’t. Because you want to play with your plan more is not a valid reason.
Think to your planning this week. How much was needed? How much was for high level things? And how much time did you waste on plans of little importance?
Yikes. Pretty sure this article has my name on it. Your second paragraph hit the nail on the head: ” …planning is not as risky as actually doing and then getting judged for what you do.”
I’ve begun to suspect this is a big part of my challenge with tasks, planning and procrastination. I’d love to see a future post helping to deal with that component. How do we overcome the fears associated with doing something (and potentially doing it wrong or doing the wrong thing, or even just having someone disagree with what you did)?
Thanks for the thoughts to ponder.
Thanks for your honesty. That’s the first step. I’ll write more about this.