How do you work on planning your day and wondering what to create or do?

Perhaps you will make a list of what you want to do today.

At the end of the day, are you satisfied and able to tick all of the items on the list?

If your answer is no, you are not alone in this.

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The planning fallacy - what's behind it?

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We humans tend to put too much in a short period of time. It is true that we are generally very good at assessing what the tasks that we want to carry out require of us. What we often neglect, however, are random peculiarities that can occur.

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This tendency to allow too little time to complete a task is also known as the planning fallacy.

 

 

The planning fallacy - an everyday companion?!

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“Today I go shopping, then I will do the laundry and clean the house. Afterwards I will pick up my daughter from kindergarten. I will cook something nice for us and later there will be enough time to spend a relaxing evening on the couch with my husband"

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Plans do not always have to be recorded in the form of a written list. Often the “list” in our head is enough. We plan things for our day and think about what we want to do in which order. But suddenly something comes up that messes up our plan. We try to do the most important things. Other plans and projects take a back seat, are only started, left out completely, or attempts are made to postpone them to a later time of the day. And that creates stress.

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At the end of the day we are annoyed or disappointed because we did not manage to achieve everything. Perhaps we are occupied with our tasks even longer than we wanted and forego free time. Either way - we don't have a relaxed evening like we've imagined it to be.

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Constant stress and frustration as a result?

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It can happen that we get into a kind of permanent stress in the long term due to the recurring planning fallacy. We keep trying to do all the things we set out to do, but we never get there.

 

Failing to achieve a goal can be frustrating, especially for people struggling with depressive symptoms such as listlessness. Feelings of failure can then make the depressive symptoms worse.

 

But what can we do about it?

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Different plan - same result?

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Have you ever thought about deliberately doing less?

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If not, just try it out:

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• Take on fewer tasks for a day.  

   - Less than you think you can do.

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• Save some extra time for unexpected events.

   Of course, we cannot consider all eventualities, but we can consciously create space for them.

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• Plan active breaks.

   In this way you can recharge your batteries to go to the next task with new energy.

   At the end of the day, watch what you've achieved and how you are doing with it. You may notice - less planning does not mean equal

   less work. If we purposefully plan less, then we can still do the same reach. Just because we plan more we don't necessarily achieve more,    but we feel worse, stressed, restless or disappointed.

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Same result - different feeling?

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And that's exactly the point. Now think about your feelings in the evening. Imagine that you set yourself ten tasks for a day, but at the end of the day you only managed to finish five of them. Or you only set five or six of these tasks for today and did five of them.

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Even if the result is the same, you will likely feel better in the latter situation. You will feel more satisfied, be proud of the fact that you were able to implement your plans for the day and go to bed more relaxed. This feeling does not only take away the stress and restlessness, it can also help us to approach the tasks of the next day with more motivation and renewed energy. Because success stories give us motivation, failure tends to demotivate us.

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How do I know what is realistic?

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Realistic time management is easier said than done. Suddenly having the perfect plan every day will not work. Unexpected peculiarities can always occur. But we have a few helpful tips for you on how you can plan more realistically:

 

  First, ask yourself the following questions:

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• How realistic is my plan currently? Do I often undertake too much or is that the exception?

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• What are typical distractions and time delays that keep coming up?

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• How do I do tasks? Do I work quickly but need longer breaks? Do I prefer to work more relaxed?

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• When do I develop a feeling of stress, restlessness or dissatisfaction?

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• What do I need to be able to go to bed feeling good in the evening?

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If you have answered all of these questions for yourself, you have already taken a good first step. In the next step, you will now try to adapt your plans accordingly. See how you are doing with it. Adjusting your plans is an ongoing process, not a one-time thing. It takes some practice to get a feel for what a workable and satisfactory schedule looks like for you personally.

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How to take the pressure off

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Realistic time management does not aim to exclusively live according to a strictly timed plan. That's why we'd like to end with a few tips on how you can consciously take this pressure off.

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1. You are allowed to make changes to your plans

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Once planned does not mean that there is no longer any possibility of deviations. For example, if you notice in the morning that you are not doing well, you can change the plan you created the evening before again. What is it good for to fight your way through the day under stress, to be even more exhausted at the end of the day and still have unfinished tasks left? Even if another important task comes up spontaneously, be flexible and reconsider your plan if necessary.

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2. You can also have “ideas” instead of “plans”

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Think about whether all of your plans really have to be fixed plans. It can take the pressure off to formulate something we want to do as an "idea" rather than a "plan". So we can keep it open as to whether we will implement the idea on this day or maybe on another day.

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3. You don't always have to plan everything

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Leave space for beautiful and spontaneous things. Not every day has to be fully planned. If you don't have that many duties in a day, enjoy it, take time for yourself, or do something spontaneously with friends or family. Switching off, being able to treat yourself to a time without fixed plans, all of this is at least as important as well-structured time management.

 

 

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Give it a try!