Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Making daily plans

He who every morning plans the transaction of the day and follows out that plan, carries a thread that will guide him through the maze of the most busy life. But where no plan is laid, where the disposal of time is surrendered merely to the chance of incidence, chaos will soon reign.
           -- Victor Hugo

I have heard this said, and even emphasized, by other philosophers. It's funny, it never worked for me (except for a few necessary bits back when I was an employee). It works much better for me to go with The Flow, minute by minute.
I am wondering: those who need a tight plan for their every day, is it because they have many things they must do but don't really want to do? So that they don't get them done if they are not written visibly on a schedule?

8 comments:

Monsieur Beep! said...

My spouse makes very thorough daily schedules with half hour sections, how many slices of bread she'll eat and how much coffee she's going to drink, and pins them to the wall. A really frightening thing for someone who notices the schedules hanging there.

The thing is: she never acts according to her plans, she loves working with her laptop and creating her schedules with it.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Haha. Really? She keeps making the plans, although she doesn't follow them?

ttl said...

I am wondering: those who need a tight plan for their every day, is it because they have many things they must do but don't really want to do?

Not for me at least. A plan, i.e. a ToDo list, allows me to forget about everything else except for the task I'm currently working on. Without my tasks written down somewhere my mind would be occupied trying to memorize them.

Anonymous said...

Eolake is looking at this from a lazy Danish perspective. Victor Hugo had a plan. He didn't just bum around all day. And he achieved something. Interesting.

Monsieur Beep! said...

I couldnt live with à Person who makes such overly strict schedules.
She sticks, more or less, to her dieting plans because of an health issue.
But you'll find her still in bed at ten while the schedule is saying: "getting up at 7.30"
Haha...
and I smile...

Speaking of myself, when preparing for a journey I check out things according to s check list, down to the tiniest detail, for nothings worse than being far from home and have sleepless nights because "did I shit that window, and was the coffee machine off??"

Monsieur Beep! said...

"...did I switch off auto correction??"

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Hehe.

I have a list also, which I print out when I'm going to travel, with everything on it from socks over passport to plug adapters. I call it "Travelist".

Anonymous said...

Traveling for you is wadling down to the store to get your snout wedged into a bucket of tea cakes.