What Plan?

Plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.

-Dwight D. Eisenhower

This week was one of those where at the beginning of it, I had big dreams. This was going to be the perfect week. I was going to work so hard, and get everything so right, that by the time I left for vacation everything in my life would have a nice tidy bow on it that would stay there until I got back.

In a stunning turn of events, it was not a perfect week. My sleep has been weird lately, there were multiple mornings when I didn’t get out of bed on time, and seven days later, the sense of clarity and calm and accomplishment that I was looking for is conspicuously absent. I would give this week a 6/10 for effort and an 8/10 for productivity. Overall not terrible, but far from perfect.

There’s a big difference between having a real plan and just saying yeah, I’m gonna kill it this week. Sometimes I get the latter confused for the former. Some things that were missing this week were a schedule and a to-do list for each day, and a list of bigger accomplishments that I wanted to have completed by week’s end.

I suck at getting specific. Always have. Why? Well, for one thing organization and time-management are not on the lengthy and distinguished list of my God-given talents. But for another, not having a clear plan also means that you’re safe from the harsh judgement of failing to accomplish your goals. If you don’t get specific you don’t have to find out exactly how much you fucked up. But then again, you’re also robbed of the opportunity to bask in the glory of getting things right.

Vagueness makes both success and failure difficult to identify. There’s a certain wisdom in getting specific. Even if things go totally sideways, you still have a reference point. So this week, I’ll make a clear and measurable plan. Then I’ll fuck it up. But at least I’ll know exactly why and by how much, and that will inform me when I make my next plan.

As long as you're willing to learn, there are no fuck-ups. Only data points.