Respect The Planning, Commit To The Doing

I mentioned that I recently gave my paper management presentation three times in 7 days. Yes, I am making the rounds, my friends! But that is not my point today.

There is a point that I make in my paper management presentation specifically, and perhaps less specifically in my Clear The Clutter or Downsizing presentations, and that is: “Planning And Doing are very different activities.”

They are both essential to getting something done, but they are very different. They deserve their own respect, their own time and tools, and we can’t skip one to get to the other, or chaos or stuckness reign.

I often mention in my presentations that there are two ways to derail your organizing progress - the second is to buy containers before you actually know what you’re containing and where - so don’t do that! - but the first way to derail an organizing project is to start without a plan. When it comes to tackling a clothes closet, organizing the garage for Fall, or setting up our paper management system, before we touch one shirt, shovel or piece of paper, we need to start with a plan, and therefore planning!

Even more specifically when it comes to paper management, as I recommend participants and clients gather their tools and supplies to get started on their project, I add a notebook or note taking device (like your Notes app on your phone) to the list of required supplies. 

Because, when we start to move around our papers (or our stuff or our thoughts or our calendar), we start to generate ideas and tasks, and we need to make sure to make note of those ideas and tasks while we are doing the organizing or planning work.

For example, that can sound like:

“Aha! Here is that overdue ComEd bill! I should go pay it!" Or, "Oh look, here is that reminder to make a dentist appointment for my regular clearing!” Or, “Oh, here is that magazine with that article I want to read!”, or “Look, here is that photo of our trip to the Grand Canyon, hmmm, I wonder what the weather is like in the Grand Canyon right now, I’m going to look that up on my phone…”

Put down the bill, the phone, the magazine and the photo. Yes, put them down. Take a breath, and pause for a moment with me.

Because during an organizing or planning session IS NOT the time to also act on those ideas. Perhaps immediately afterwards, in the case of paying that overdue electric bill! But as we get through our back log of mail or papers on the kitchen counter or dining room table, we put the Bills to Pay in a pile and we add a recurring appointment every week or every other week to our calendar and we call it Bill Paying Time. We set aside that magazine to read later today when we are taking a break, and NOT right now.  We DO NOT stop what we are doing (sorting papers, getting through the backlog, identifying the tasks) to DO the tasks. Because that will stop our forward movement of planning or organizing.

For example:  When I explained the premise of today’s article to my spouse, he said “Like, planning Thanksgiving Dinner and MAKING Thanksgiving Dinner are two very different things”. Brilliant, yes, that! 

Planning and Doing are two different activities.  

I like to plan my work (personal and professional) first thing in the morning for the rest of the day. It is tempting to hop up and go and do a million things, but then I find myself reacting to things or wandering aimlessly - and hey - don't get me wrong - some days, aimlessness is awesome!! - but if I have anything specific I want to do or a specific place to go, I need to plan first!

Planning and Doing are two different activities.  

When I coach with my clients, the first questions we ask in a session, other than a hello and a quick catch up, is what are we working on today?  What question did you bring to our session today?  What makes it important now? What outcomes are you seeking today during our time together? How will we know when we've been successful?  Yep, that sounds a lot like planning! And we make sure to do that before we actually jump into the coaching session work!  We can also check in during a session, either coaching and organizing, and make sure the plan is being implemented and the work is on track. That often happens so naturally that we forget those two activities are separate, but they are. They are separate but both vital to success. We cannot forgo one to only do the other.

Planning time, and I will lump organizing time in there, too, like the time that we dedicate to organizing something into planning time, is a different activity than Doing. And if we don’t respect that idea, we may get off track. And I would like it for you to not get off track.  That's my hope for you. It's definitely my hope for myself. 

Planning and Doing are two different activities.  

I completed a Productivity Coaching Course this past May. It was an interesting phenomenon - we were coaches learning about tools to help work with our clients on productivity, but we also learned how to use the same tools for ourselves to boost our own productivity.

The Productivity Coaching Course was based on a concept called The Productivity Chain, and we used the book by the same name written by Casey Moore, PCC, CPO, PCOC, who was also our instructor. The premise behind the course and the book is that there are 12 individual but related components to productivity: Boundary-setting, Communications / Relationships, Decision-making, Delegation, Drive, Goal-setting / Prioritization, Health, Organization of Objects/Data, Planning, Reinvention, Resources, and Task / Project Management.  

In the course we explored each of these areas and how to assess and coach around them for our clients and also for ourselves.  (If you are interested in learning more, reach out to me!)

I scored strongly in many areas and I am proud of those. Some areas I have always been strong in, but I am even more proud of the ones that I have worked to improve upon over the years. For today’s topic, not surprisingly, given who I am and what I do, I scored high on planning, and that is not a flex or brag. We all should know what we’re good at, and be ready to work with those skills. 

Let me be the first to tell you, as a professional organizer, I really love to plan.  Thinking about the work from different angles, noting all the large and small details, imagining the best strategies for getting things done - yep, this is my jam!  HOWEVER, I also know I can spend too much time planning and not enough time DOING. Planning is easier and more fun. And if my schedule is full of hard work or heavy lifting, physically and metaphorically, it is tempting to just stick with planning!

And yet.

Per Casey in The Productivity Chain, “Your Planning link operationalizes your work, preparing it for action.”

Which reminds us that planning is separate from doing, it is preparing us to act and we still need to act.  Planning is essential, but planning alone doesn’t make progress. We have to do both - both the planning and the doing, and we have to recognize they’re not the same.

Planning and Doing are two different activities.  

Now, here is a funny, if you have stuck with me this long.

I have my podcast - obviously  -  and at last week’s NAPO Chicago meeting and service project with the Chicago Furniture Bank, a friend and fellow organizer asked me how it was going. There were a few other organizers on our service project team, so I shared a little more - that I had just recorded episode #150, that it is going well, thank you so much for listening and subscribing, and then what I often add is that when my husband mentions my podcast, he assures people that the episodes are short.

And we all laughed, because I could be offended by that, but I am not - he is right, they are short!  By design and by intention!

My podcast episode can be considered the planning before the doing.  Hop in for a short and fun and motivational 15 minutes, and then get on with the Do-ing part of your day!