In praise of planning

I’m a planner. In life and in writing. I take comfort in a structure that contains the hours of the day. A plan makes things predictable, organized, and doable.

I know some people prefer not to plan. “Planning takes all the fun and creativity out of it!” they say.  

But let me make the case for planning out, on a quarterly basis, the tasks associated with writing – so we can see whether it facilitates productivity and, dare I say, creativity.

Late last year, I noticed that the things I wanted to work on in 2024 were almost exactly the same things I worked on in 2023:

• My memoir project

• My business

• New projects

• Travel (making sure I had time and space for personal and professional trips)

• Other (a category to hold things that don’t fit in any other category)

I created a document that I call “Quarterly Goal Setting/Revisiting 2024” and made each of the bullets above its own heading so that I could break up tasks associated with each one – and cross them off when done. (Planners love to cross things off lists!)

1. My memoir project

• Revise

• Editorial feedback

• Submission plan

2. My business

• Website fixes

• Copy audit

• Ongoing newsletter

• Podcast pitching

• Ongoing social media

3. New projects

• Novel

• Essay(s)

• Nonfiction book

4. Travel 

• Cruise from Idea to Outline April 28-May 5

• Personal trips?

• Writing conference or retreat?

5. Other 

• Cruise marketing

• Pursue publication for existing work

I’m keeping things generic for demonstration purposes, but note that the more specific you get for each task, the more you can cross off the list the more you break down a big task into a doable bit. 

At any rate, we can see that a to-do list gets really long really fast. It becomes clear that the to-dos need to be split up into things that need to be done sooner and things that can be done later.

So I created a “Q1 January - March” heading above the list, copied/pasted everything to a new heading “Q2 April - June” below the list, and then edited Q1 and Q2 according to priority, deadlines, and feasibility. Here they are side by side for comparison purposes:

The main point I want to make is that I can’t do everything at the same time. By planning in this manner, I was able to prioritize what needed to be done now vs what needed to wait until there was more availability. And, by planning like this, I could break down tasks for myself so that they became finishable so I could move on. 

I think planning quarterly is useful. It gives me a sense of spaciousness (90 days!) as well as urgency (90 days!) but is not paralyzing. It also allows me to see that putting off a thing (for example, starting work on a novel) is not failure, it’s allowing myself the time and space to finish other things that need to be finished so I have peace of mind and I can look forward to having more mental availability for that new project soon. I also keep a document just for that future project where I can jot down ideas. It’s not like I’m ignoring it; I’m preparing for it. 

I’m happy to report that I am going to finish all the things I set out for myself this quarter – and the things that needed to be moved to next quarter are ready for me!

Are you a planner or are you anti-planning? Questions about my planning process? Happy to answer or help you.