The Bad Habit Of Overplanning

I consistently enjoy reading Leo Babauta’s zenhabits blog. His insight is wonderful and he presents useful wisdom in such simple and concise language. His latest post, Why We Overplan, is no exception.

Overplanning is something I struggle with all the time. I was raised by a father who is a planner, a list maker, an overachiever, and someone for whom idle time was to be avoided like the plague. My father is an amazing man. I love him more each day because I realize what a great father he was and is, but that’s one habit of his I’m not always happy I picked up.

I find myself falling into the same trap of identifying specific goals and believing I can dissect them into smaller chunks of effort and time that when cobbled together in a checklist like sequence will somehow magically bring me to my goal. It never happens that way. As I chat with others about this same phenomenon, they say the same thing.

Many of us have read the articles and books that tout some version of the concept of identifying a long-term goal, breaking it down into medium-range goals, and then breaking those down further into short-term actionable tasks. Sounds good, doesn’t it? It appeals to our sense of order and our belief (fantasy) that we can control how our life unfolds with such precision. We can’t.

Check out Babauta’s post. I think you’ll find it helpful and then let me know your thoughts on this topic.