# Are you a planner?



## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

How much do you plan? Do you like to know where you're going on holiday three years from now? Or do you live your life from day to day, revelling in surprise and spontaneity? Or do you wish you could plan, but are too lazy or absent-minded to do it?

Yes, it's a poll. But only to get you going. Be a sport - use your vote as a way in to explaining how you tick, and giving us some lovely stories from your life, about plans you made and whether they worked - or not! 

Thanks in advance for any replies.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

The trouble with plans is, they don't always work.

My sister had a row with her boyfriend on a Thursday night, the eve of his final 'A-level exam. She came straight home and wrote him a letter dumping him, then posted it. She figured that the letter would arrive at his house on Saturday, but she'd see him on Friday night and they could make it up then, maybe.

However, the postman who collected the morning post saw that it was for a local destination & instead of putting it with the other letters bound for the sorting office, handed it to the colleague who did that round. That postman delivered it in the morning so Tim got it just before he set off to take his exam that afternoon.

Needless to say, he didn't get a terribly good grade in that paper!


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## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

There's always something that turns up unexpectedly to ruin things.

We've had some disasters when decorating. Once we did everything right - all the preparation, everything ready, started stripping the wall paper. Pulled - the paper came off the ceiling and the ceiling came down. *That *changed our plans.

Our current house is (just about) the newest we've owned, but it's still about 60 years old. We had the builders in to redo the bathroom. Everything planned. Then they got the bath out. We had a sunken bath - the floor under the bath was about 4" lower than the rest of the room, although nobody realised it - and the bath had been supported by a brick pillar. To make matters worse, local bricks are exceedingly hard and took some removing.

Plans - who needs them!


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

I can't plan out my life, it's way too unpredictable. I have absolutely NO idea where I will be in 2 years. I'm pretty sure I will be in a grad school studying flute, but WHERE or HOW is totally up in the air, nor do I have full influence over it. I also have little idea what I'm doing this summer, since I'm applying to a number of things which may or may not fall through. I'll be going to the NFA (National Flute Association) in Chicago this summer, but that's all that's planned. On the other hand, in the short term, I have goals and stuff, due dates/auditions for things I'm applying for, and my school schedule is highly predictable since I get many dates ahead of time to write down on my calendars.


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

You betcha I'm a planner. Airlines, hotels, dinner reservations, tee-times, medical/dental appointments, car servicing, etc., etc. :tiphat:


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## Winterreisender (Jul 13, 2013)

Interesting question. Makes me want to get all autobiographical. You see, I wish I could plan out the next five years of my life, or maybe longer, because I do rather crave stability, but at the same time I am regularly plagued by uncertainty and indecisiveness. I often have a terrible tendency of jumping ship. For example, after finishing my A-Levels I applied to study for a music degree. I arrived at university, all set to start, but after about three days it dawned on me that a) I have no musical talent, and b) even if I did, I would rather keep music as a hobby and not have it spoilt by that horrible thing called academia. So I switched to an English degree and basically run up against the same problems. In the end I settled on a Classics degree, which on the whole served me well, except for the small problem that a Classics degree is arguably the most pointless degree course going. Makes me wish I'd studied science, or something useful.

At the moment, I'm fortunate enough to be studying for another year in Germany, but I have no plans as to what I'll do after that! Remaining in the elitist world of classical scholarship would be one option. Or jumping on one of the default career paths (e.g. law or financial services) along with all the other classics graduates would be the other. No idea to be honest.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Of course plans don't always work - that's why you make sure in advance that there is a plan B and a plan C. Granted, I have had far less opportunity/urgency to do so after I chose early retirement from my management position in a large multinational company in 2012.


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## Cheyenne (Aug 6, 2012)

Uninteresting things I plan weeks ahead: for example, when I have the house to myself, I do grocery shopping about once a week, meticulously planning what I will eat each day so that the remaining money for food can be used to invest into more useful things such as books and CDs. But what I do in my free time is left to chance and spontaneity, and mostly left unpolluted by convention and habit. I live sporadically, from deciding to go to the woods to watch the sunrise at 6 AM to suddenly doing a big batch of homework months before it's due in a moment of goodwill when I can't sleep during midnight. This morning I actually forgot it was my birthday - how's that for planning? Generally, I avoid elaborate arrangements; however, when the effects of a lack of planning are grievous, I appear to be able to plan quite well.

Regarding tests and schoolwork: I used to plan as well as most of my peers, which is to say not at all - but I'm improving!


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## lupinix (Jan 9, 2014)

Cheyenne said:


> Uninteresting things I plan weeks ahead: for example, when I have the house to myself, I do grocery shopping about once a week, meticulously planning what I will eat each day so that the remaining money for food can be used to invest into more useful things such as books and CDs. But what I do in my free time is left to chance and spontaneity, and mostly left unpolluted by convention and habit. I live sporadically, from deciding to go to the woods to watch the sunrise at 6 AM to suddenly doing a big batch of homework months before it's due in a moment of goodwill when I can't sleep during midnight. This morning I actually forgot it was my birthday - how's that for planning? Generally, I avoid elaborate arrangements; however, when the effects of a lack of planning are grievous, I appear to be able to plan quite well.
> 
> Regarding tests and schoolwork: I used to plan as well as most of my peers, which is to say not at all - but I'm improving!


sounds great! and happy birthday, its mine also. I would have forgotton it if someone wouldn't have spammed me about it all week

as for planning, just cant do it at all, dont know which option that is


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## lupinix (Jan 9, 2014)

Huilunsoittaja said:


> I can't plan out my life, it's way too unpredictable. I have absolutely NO idea where I will be in 2 years. I'm pretty sure I will be in a grad school studying flute, but WHERE or HOW is totally up in the air, nor do I have full influence over it. I also have little idea what I'm doing this summer, since I'm applying to a number of things which may or may not fall through. I'll be going to the NFA (National Flute Association) in Chicago this summer, but that's all that's planned. On the other hand, in the short term, I have goals and stuff, due dates/auditions for things I'm applying for, and my school schedule is highly predictable since I get many dates ahead of time to write down on my calendars.


sounds familiar, except 2 months 2 weeks or sometimes 2 days (there was a time even 2 hours was to much for me) instead of two years


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## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

I had things planned ahead ever since I can remember. And one day, I'm telling you, one day SOMETHING will finally happen according to these plans.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

My latest plan: 1000 posts on TC in 3 weeks! Done!

Now.... 5000 posts by April 15th? I smell a plan!


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Via music comp, and advice given there, "Draw out a plan. At least then you have something do deviate from."

I've found both parts of that advice to be more than generally true, regardless of the goal of "the plan."


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

I don't plan anything at all. I used to plan my compositions, but I ended up never completing anything in time and always wracking my brain about what happens when in the music....

As of this year I use the seashell method. It's like walking along the beach picking up seashells. John Cage made this up and it works for me. I get one idea without planning it, it grows as I go along and by the end I have a fully formed, well structured composition. 

Planning is simply unnecessary work for me as I have found in every case previously.


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## Gilberto (Sep 12, 2013)

I'm in the middle. I make plans but they are not rules. I allow myself to be flexible and modify them whenever. I've seen too many "super achievers" and ambitious types turn into completely unreasonable people because they had "plans". Besides, announcing your plans is a good way to make God laugh...we know this by experience, don't we?


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## Flamme (Dec 30, 2012)

Im a Virgo in horoscope and we are for most the obsessive planners but those plans often dont always come through 'cause if only one item in the ''real world'' misses from the ideal mindset we get nervous and sometimes panic...But i have learned through the years to be more spontaneous and relaxed and to take life as it goes i have only some ''basic' plant now...


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## lupinix (Jan 9, 2014)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> I don't plan anything at all. I used to plan my compositions, but I ended up never completing anything in time and always wracking my brain about what happens when in the music....
> 
> As of this year I use the seashell method. It's like walking along the beach picking up seashells. John Cage made this up and it works for me. I get one idea without planning it, it grows as I go along and by the end I have a fully formed, well structured composition.
> 
> Planning is simply unnecessary work for me as I have found in every case previously.


Sounds a bit like the way I compose ^^ works great and in any case gives more personal satisfaction to me, composing is more like experiencing a world within to me than planning


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## lupinix (Jan 9, 2014)

Flamme said:


> Im a Virgo in horoscope and we are for most the obsessive planners but those plans often dont always come through 'cause if only one item in the ''real world'' misses from the ideal mindset we get nervous and sometimes panic...But i have learned through the years to be more spontaneous and relaxed and to take life as it goes i have only some ''basic' plant now...


any idea of your moon sign? if thats something like aries or sagittarius that would make it easier to live spontaneously or impulsively, but for instance taurus could make it worse


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

My planning is usually short term and fun stuff. Work I don't like to plan. The easiest planning (to do) is no planning, which for me means routine, routine, routine. Ah but one must break the routine now and then.


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

Some things in life you can plan well and it works others you intend to plan but it doesn't work accordingly, and still others you plan and things come beyond your control to change /disrupt the plan (good and bad ways). So I only plan where I think it is reasonable to do so.


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## Manok (Aug 29, 2011)

I'd say unless I'm forced to, I don't plan, things seem to turn out better if I just react.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

Sometimes I wonder whether I was planned


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> Sometimes I wonder whether I was planned


Of course you were; and if you didn't exist, we'd have had to invent you!


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## Crudblud (Dec 29, 2011)

CoAG not being here would be too impractical, we would have to travel back in time to 1739 and enlist the services of Vaucanson, tell him to stop with that _Canard Digérateur_ business and make us a CoAG. And Voltaire would proclaim "sans le compositeur de Vaucanson vous n'auriez rien qui fit ressouvenir de la gloire de la Parle Classique." As you can see this is all a bit far fetched, but it is presumed that by the 1760s CoAG would have become sentient and developed the capability of hovering perfectly still, such that the Earth travels beneath him and he returns to his starting longitude once every 24 hours or so.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

I abhor planning if it's in the world of day to day human endeavor. In fact it makes me a wreck. But visual images is another story. I love to plan / create those.


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## deggial (Jan 20, 2013)

the worst chore is planning ahead. Cleaning the loo pales in comparison.


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## Kieran (Aug 24, 2010)

I only plan ahead in my dreams. Asking me to meet on Tuesday when it's Sunday makes me frigid with terror. It's too far away! Talk to me Tuesday morn!


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## deggial (Jan 20, 2013)

deggial said:


> the worst chore is planning ahead. Cleaning the loo pales in comparison.


I should add, though, that my lack of ability to plan has caused me to miss some things that can't be replaced and over which I've since cried bitterly (I've no shame admitting to this).


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## lupinix (Jan 9, 2014)

Kieran said:


> I only plan ahead in my dreams. Asking me to meet on Tuesday when it's Sunday makes me frigid with terror. It's too far away! Talk to me Tuesday morn!


sounds (or reads?) really very familiar


deggial said:


> I should add, though, that my lack of ability to plan has caused me to miss some things that can't be replaced and over which I've since cried bitterly (I've no shame admitting to this).


reads very familiar too......


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## Krummhorn (Feb 18, 2007)

Only my professional music career/life is planned in a year in advance ... and a pretty strict schedule to boot.

When I retired from the full time work scene, the first thing I did was toss my wristwatch in the trash. 
My time, other than my music career, is mostly my own. The only thing expected is to have dinner ready when the wife gets home from work. 

Kh ♫


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## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

"Universe"? Pshhhhhhhh  :tiphat:


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## shangoyal (Sep 22, 2013)

I have just made a plan to not smoke again. Hope it works.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

I used to be a planner. Then I got married, and I began to experience the world of the random. I've been there ever since.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Manxfeeder said:


> I used to be a planner. Then I got married, and I began to experience the world of the random. I've been there ever since.


Your wife plans for you now.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

Ingélou said:


> Your wife plans for you now.


Yep. I've found out that if I'm bored, all I need to do is start doing something I really love, like opening up a poetry book by T.S. Eliot, and without fail she'll peek into my room and say, "I need you to" [fill in the blank with something involving yardwork].


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Ingélou said:


> Your wife plans for you now.


Understatement of the millennium.


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