I’m all for planning. I’m really big on the whole “fail to plan, plan to fail” business. But there is one area of your life that people seem to plan that should be left as well enough alone as possible — or perhaps even eliminated: The Personal Category.
Now I’m not suggesting that you don’t ever plan for personal projects and personal time, but what I am saying is that there is a downside to putting some structure around that particular area of your life. I’ve actually gotten rid of the Personal Category in recent months, mainly because I slot in projects that have to do with household items into the Home Workspace of Asana and family-oriented stuff into The Vardy Family Workspace. Much of the stuff in the latter category generally has to do with long term trip planning, finances and the like.
But I don’t “overplay” because the category that led to that is now history.
By removing the Personal Category, I’ve essentially achieved a better ability to shift from work to other life stuff — because now Asana is reserved for things that actually require some form of work on my part. When my personal time comes into play, I can now focus on actually being more in touch with what I want to do with my personal time as opposed to doing what my “work mind” has said I should do with my personal time.
As for those “Someday/Maybe” things? If they are personal in nature, there’s a good chance I’ve put them into Stamped because Stamped does a great job of allowing me to track movies, restaurants, books and more stuff like that into the “to-do” portion of the app. Plus, those things have come to me by way of recommendation from those who I share interest with or by reminder in the same way. Stamped allows me to explore these kinds of things — and it allows me not only to connect with others, but with myself on a more personal level as well.
It’s true that if you fail to plan, then you are planning to fail. But when you overplan, you’re failing yourself in a different way.
And personally, I think that’s a problem.
