Why plan?

I had great plans for this past weekend, but I didn’t achieve most of them.

To Do List:

  • clean house
  • finish emails
  • research for a couple of projects
  • finish Everything is Miscellaneous
  • update to WordPress 2.2.1

This has been happening for weeks now – lots of plans for the weekend, only to fail to achieve 90% of them. My question is, should I change tack and a) reduce the number of goals I have every weekend? or b) quit having any plans at all? c) Keep trying?

Plan a) would have the advantage of not leaving me feeling like I haven’t achieved anything. (You might be wondering why I feel like I need to achieve anything over the weekend? I wonder, too.) If I only have one, or, say, two items on the list, and I manage to do the one or two things, well then everyone starts the week off happy (especially because readers of this blog would not be subjected to posts like this one).

Plan b) would be the ideal, I think, but I don’t think it’s very achievable because I don’t usually write down these lists or set out to create them in any way, they just form. And sit in my head nagging me.

c) *Sigh*

paco-035.jpg

Or maybe I need to do something completely different and get out of the house all weekend, or something. Only problem is, I do need the weekend to recharge.

What is the solution? Any ideas?

6 Comments

M 25 June 2007

Choose option b.
If your head forms a list just hand it to me and forget about it. I know I will 😛

CW 26 June 2007

How do I hand you a list that’s in my head, M? 😉

genevieve 26 June 2007

CW, I really like lists. Because
you can cross things off them whether you get them done or not.

My main problem nowadays, running a couple of notebooks and a Google calendar, is making sure all the lists are in the one place. I do find I get a lot done though if there is a prioritised plan of some sort.
It’s a good way to unload the brain too. Once you’ve written it down, if you are enjoying doing something relaxing you can forget about the naggety thing until you look at the list.

Does that sound screwy? because it works for me most of the time. Especially crossing off the things I can’t get done – fastest track to realistic goal setting I’ve ever had.

As to whether you should be doing lots on the weekend – when you’ve written a few lists like this you’ll be able to see that more clearly. Lots left undone? then make the list shorter.

Penny 26 June 2007

No matter if I write a list of do it in my head it rarely gets completed in the time I set for it because I tend to be a bit unrealistic… or is it that I have 2 kids to undermine my best intentions? Not sure… in any case I choose option c because there are some marvelous occasions when I do get everything on my list done!

CW 27 June 2007

Hi Genevieve, I like that: “you can cross things off them whether you get them done or not”! I don’t know if I will be able to get myself to just write things down and forget about them, though.. I might try writing a mega list and see how it goes!

Penny you at least have a good reason! I get in my own way 🙂

genevieve 27 June 2007

Yes, you sure can, CW.
I learned that from my husband – took me years, but it is learnable. It’s the list in the head that I found I needed most to kill, it tends to be the source of unconscious frustration for me.
Also I do get very involved in whatever I decide to do, so I don’t like other choices invading the space once I’m committed. (I repeat, this took years…:))