Planners vs going with the flow

[whatnext]

I am starting to realize I am a major planner. When I'm stressed it gets worse and i find planning comforting. It never occurred to me until the other day that people don't plan out their week (I have no idea how you budget or eat without this but people must!).

For those fellow planners, do you find it interferes with your life?

For those who tend to go with the flow, is it something that came naturally? Or did you learn it over time?

My best example is a work colleague talking to her daughter on the phone about not knowing what was for dinner that night, this was eye opening for me because I knew what I was eating that day based on the shopping list I wrote a week ago

[sweetchix]

I go with the flow. Partly because of laziness and partly because I'm a procrastinator. I'm also not a very organized person. I rarely ever know what's for dinner until I'm looking through the fridge/freezer. I wish I were more of a planner and I know I need to work on that. I'll start tomorrow

[mommadukes]

I am a planner, especially with food, but I also go with the flow.

I know what I'm having for dinner that entire week. I only cook Monday - Thursday and Friday - Sunday is takeout, leftovers or something form the freezer.

I can't let planning interfere with my life though. I do get out of sorts of something comes up, but I still make sure what I planned to make for dinner a certain night has to be done to ensure my kids are fed lol

[Deleted]

I'm like half and half? I'll think through what food I want on hand for the week and then decide at dinner time what I want to eat. But I just have a protein and a veggie so I mix and match. I never know what I'm going to feel like so I don't plan what I'll eat on which day. For social plans I like to know what the plan is. Where and when so I can plan the rest of my day. Wishy washy plans annoy me.

[Deleted]

I'm very go with the flow and laid back in my personal life. I've always been like that. Not much stresses me out.

At work I'm a planner by necessity and try to stay very organized. But a lot of things happen last minute and there is a lot of unpredictability so in a way I also have to be very flexible. Patients often don't follow plans

[Mrs.Rad888]

Aug 12, 2015 8:36:37 GMT -5 sweetchix said:

I go with the flow. Partly because of laziness and partly because I'm a procrastinator. I'm also not a very organized person. I rarely ever know what's for dinner until I'm looking through the fridge/freezer. I wish I were more of a planner and I know I need to work on that. I'll start tomorrow

Same here, except for the starting to work on it tomorrow. The most organized I get is shopping or packing lists, and the shopping lists are made as we run out of stuff, not from meal planning.

[Deleted]

It kind of depends on what we're talking about. I tend to plan fun stuff ahead of time and I'm not big on last minute plans - so I like to know that we're going to a football game on Sept 26th and on vacation in February and approximately what we'll do there and when I'll drive to the airport, etc. I like to have a general plan for the week/weekend and if someone asks me last minute to hang out, I tend to first thing "ugh, I don't want to" because I need time to psych myself up for plans.

I usually have a general plan for what will be eaten that week, but it's flexible and changes. I have no idea what we're having for dinner tonight. I'm thinking spaghetti but it might change if something else sounds good later. I have stuff to make a bunch of different meals so it really doesn't matter.

Beyond that - I don't plan much. I tend not to plan out my days at work, which I know is a weakness of mine. I have a general idea of what I need to get done but I couldn't care less what time it gets done (unless someone is waiting on something from me - then that gets done first).

[sweetchix]

Aug 12, 2015 9:57:03 GMT -5 Mrs.Rad888 said:

Aug 12, 2015 8:36:37 GMT -5 sweetchix said:

I go with the flow. Partly because of laziness and partly because I'm a procrastinator. I'm also not a very organized person. I rarely ever know what's for dinner until I'm looking through the fridge/freezer. I wish I were more of a planner and I know I need to work on that. I'll start tomorrow

Same here, except for the starting to work on it tomorrow. The most organized I get is shopping or packing lists, and the shopping lists are made as we run out of stuff, not from meal planning.

Yep. I actually have a packing list right now for camping. Granted, it was an already prepared one from the campgrounds, but still.

And the "I'll start tomorrow" was a joke since I'm a procrastinator. Get it? Haha! I'll just keep putting it off u til tomorrow, lol.

[Wanderista]

I'm in the middle. I'm both a planner and flexible. The type of work I do requires me to be both. I have a general rubric of my plans and then I need to adapt. I work with clients and the best laid plans can sometimes be shot right through due to changing circumstances. For example, I had this week planned out and I was planning to go on a beach day trip on this coming Saturday which looked like it was going to fit into my schedule perfectly. Now, a client is having a crisis and it is looking like I will need to work on Saturday. The beach trip will now probably need to be Sunday, there's just nothing I can do about that. It's not that big a deal but making plans and then being flexible about them works best for me.

That said, I hate flakiness in people/planning. I'm very forgiving if there's a good reason or a person is respectful. A friend is generally reliable but has a problem? I'll be very understanding. If it's habitual thing or they just seem flakey, I tend not to go out of my way to make plans with them and I let them go on the backburner. As far as the type of work that I currently do, my friends, etc, understand that and they know that sometimes my plans need to adjust due to my work. I keep them updated whenever that is the case. I usually make plans in such a way that it isn't an issue but it's just a reality of my life that my schedule needs both some planning and some flexibility.

[jigsy]

I'm more go with the flow now that I am single. When I was in a relationship/married, there is another person and schedule to figure out, so it was more needed, but now I only answer to myself and I love it.

If you enjoy being a planner, don't apologize for it.

[1confused1]

During my separation and now post-divorce, I had to learn how to go with the flow more. I was a major planner before, but now life is so unpredictable that I've learned I can't plan. I mean, big things, like vacations, I plan, but our day to day lives are more go with the flow. I plan meals for myself, but not for my kids (I'm a short order cook for them for dinner, but I don't care because I need them to eat what I make, so it's their choice).

[pinkdutchtulips]

I'm a bit of both depending on what it is ... I have a 6yo so there's a loose plan and I plan for GS and PTA stuff but other than that I'm pretty go w the flow. Sure I'll grocery shop w xyz dinners in mind but nothing for set days.

I've never been one to have a super rigid schedule but at the same time it's not go w the flow, nothing's planned either

Eta - my flexibility came about bc I've had to be adaptable to any situation and having everything planned to a T w no wiggle room made me a hot mess.

[glynn]

I am a planner than can be flexible.
I found out this weekend that I have a hard time going with other peoples flow sometimes. My DD moved into her first apartment with the help of her boyfriends parents driving 5 hours to us to get stuff. They where suppose to be at my house at 10AM to load the stuff. They did not arrive until 1PM which by that time I had moved everything into the garage. We did not get to the apartment until 8:30PM still needing to unload all her stuff and eat dinner. We stayed up until 1AM getting stuff done and I had to drive back home that same day. Luckily DD and I are very organized and planners so it was all done by 1PM so I could come back home knowing she was ready to start school.
I always say I need a plan well in advance.

[bg]

Yeah, I think it's fine being a planner as long as you're able to be flexible if things don't go exactly how they are supposed to.

I'm trying to find a happy balance now -- I was a planner about almost everything but I totally see why it's important to just go with the flow sometimes. It's hard!

[glitzyglow]

I used to meal plan and be really schedule-oriented when I was married, but now I'm much more lax as a single person. I meal plan occasionally, but since it's just me I tend to go to the store and buy a few things that sound good. I think I had to be more on-schedule with my ex because he wouldn't do things in a timely manner. I'm the kind of person that will get stuff done by whenever it needs done, but I don't have to say, "Okay, do x at 7pm, y at 8pm, and bedtime at 10pm." In fact, having a workout buddy and having to be at the gym at 7pm is feeling too rigid for me. I want to go whenever I feel like in the evening! The only time I really feel myself go into schedule-mode is on vacation because I don't want to miss anything in a place I might never have the chance to come back to!

[whatnext]

See without a plan I get very anxious and don't really achieve much. But I'm starting to realize that I tell myself I should be doing or I should have done based on a plan I created! I'm also finding that other people who tend to go with the flow more feel stifled and restricted by plans.

I really struggle with this eat what you feel like thing, as funny is it may seem it's a foreign concept to me (I don't eat the same thing every Monday but it has always been predetermined or picked from a list of places)