I’ve always been a big fan of planning and organizing. I think A.A. Milne said it best: “Organizing is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up.”
Binders and tabs are my tools of choice in order to stay organized at work or at home. While I used to just dump everything into one folder, all that really did was contain the chaos, not make any sense out of it.
I always think that planning is a way to keep you on track and give you something to look forward to. A way to manage your progress and make sure you’re hitting important milestones, so you’re not just spinning your wheels and accomplishing nothing.
But one thing that always disrupts the order we planners try and create is a little thing known as life.
Randi G. Fine once wrote that, “The only predictable outcome of any given situation is that it will never turn out exactly the way we expect it will.”
Yes, things never seem to go the way we plan – it’s a reality we all need to accept (no matter how frustrating it might be). But for planners, that can sometimes be cause for great anxiety.
It seems lately every project I undertake, at work and at home, seems to be falling victim to life. My binders need to be continually updated while my brain often struggles to stay focused on what I still hope can be accomplished at the end of the day. And while that used to make me terribly anxious, of late I’m kind of just going with the flow.
What else can you do really?
Life is filled with unexpected turns – there’s no avoiding them. But what’s truly important is how you get around them and keep going. While it’s not always easy for a planner like me, you find that flexibility is the key to sanity.
