Do You Plan Ahead or Go with the Flow?

I’ve been thinking about some of my various personality “quirks” a bit lately. It’s something to do when my various projects are unpleasant (read: rewrite I mentioned last week). If you think about me in a “right brain vs. left brain” kind of way I’m pretty split down the middle. I plan things in detail and am extremely organize about some things, but I also get messy and creative. (My room at the moment can attest to the messy part, but dirty dishes in the sink annoy me to the point of stressing me out).

So, in answer to the question my title asks, both. I like to think of myself as flexible and liking to adapt and change when needed. I like trying new things and don’t mind mixing things up and making a new game plan, but that is not the whole of it. I like to have a plan of action. I like to know what is going to happen. When I come into something I like to know how everything is going to unfold–and if something changes and it can’t go that way (especially if I’m not in the best mood to begin with) I get very stressed until a new plan can be made.

For example, Saturday mornings I like to get up, shower, have a relaxing breakfast and start my laundry. Then I’ll get on the computer, catch up on emails and then get down to my to-do list. I write blog posts, update my work website, do whatever various other things I have. Once the laundry’s done and my to-do list is checked off I relax–go outside or lay around and catch up on TV, go on an adventure, whatever. That’s an ideal Saturday. Many Saturdays are not ideal. Sometimes there are Reds games. Sometimes other things come up, like social events. The less warning I have that my Saturday is disrupted, the more likely I am to be stressed. I find time to do the things I need to do–laundry especially–or I let some things be put off for another night or weekend, but I’m not happy about it.

Once I make a new plan, then I can go with the flow of this sudden change in my day. So apparently I’m only flexible as long as I can recover control with a new plan.

I think my book needs some recovery time so I can make a new plan for it…

That’s all. Just a little introspection. (FYI, this post was written on a Friday night before a disrupted Saturday).