Planning

[tinyjo]

A couple of comment threads have had me reflecting on my tendancy to make plans a lot, particularly in response to feeling unhappy in a situation. And as the trend seems to be to post a poll for any musings of this nature, I present a very short poll on planning :)

[Poll #1044394]

Comments

[bluedevi.livejournal.com]

Reason for my weird schizoid answers: Normally planning is great for saving myself from stress/distress. I feel a bit overwhelmed, run around flapping my hands, then remember that making a list will make me feel better, and hey presto, it does.

But there's a certain state of chronic, advanced overwhelmedness in which making a plan starts to seem like yet another thing on the stack of things to do, yet another demand on my attention, yet another thing I'll probably fail to do well and then feel bad about. In that state of mind, when people tell me 'you need a holiday' I'm likely to snap 'you want me to plan a holiday? You must be joking.'

Mind you, the best way out of that second state is to start off by making very very small plans...

[tinyjo.livejournal.com]

That second situation is actually one where planning helps me most. It gives me a (sometime illusiary) feeling of being in control and helps me pick things out that I can do easily to take the weight off again. On the other hand, it doesn't always help me get things done on time - I used to be a big one for coloured exam timetables and that sort of thing :)