The Planning Paradox: Why Planning is Ruining your Life

“If you fail to plan, you’re planning to fail!”

You’ve heard this from your parents, teachers, and color-coded notetaking kind of friends. I am here to tell you the opposite: STOP PLANNING (so much). Like red wine and sunbathing, planning is good in small doses. However, too much can send you into a spiral of nothingness.

It all comes down to cognitive function. The human brain possesses mirror neurons, cells that fire when you perform an action, and fire when you see someone else perform the same action. They explain why you cry when a dog dies in a movie, and cringe when you see kids propelling head-first off trampolines in home videos. Mirror neurons are what make us empathetic, and that’s awesome.

What’s not awesome is that we can be empathetic towards our future selves, especially when we plan. Basically, when we plan, we imagine ourselves completing a set of desired tasks, and chemically speaking, our brain feels like we are actually doing it. So when you write down your new workout schedule or plan to write your paper tomorrow, you can feel like you have already accomplished those tasks without actually doing anything at all.

How can we overcome this planning paradox? Don’t we need to plan to get things done? Here is the solution: Plan later. Plan at the end of the day, after work, after the gym, after writing your book. This strategy allows you to dedicate your primary energy to action.

When you plan later, you can reflect on what you’ve done, and make suggestions towards improvement for next time. Remember, you can’t improve what you haven’t done.

So don’t plan your next blog post: write it. The cozy world of planning belongs to those who want the reward without the effort. And while the planners plan to be as successful as you are, you will be living your dream.