Planning ahead

Let's get to the topic straight away. Planning ahead.

So what does planning ahead is? It is actually planning generally. Being able to plan your time and schedule it out in a piece of paper, it actually does help in your everyday's task. Giving an example, in one day, I would need to do my research, my assignments, writing essays, cleaning the house and everything else. How does one cope with all these deepshit everyday? Most of the people would be like, oh, i just do it when the time comes. Let me tell you, to be honest, the time never came. You have to find the time yourself.

So what I am going to discuss on for today, is planning ahead. People often tell us to plan ahead. It was told to me by a lot of people. Like my lecturers, my parents, my friends, my students, my supervisors, my siblings. Well, basically everyone does tell me to do it. But somehow, I just tend to go very spontaneously. I do not really care for what I am going to do as long as I complete what I am supposed to do.

To be honest, it is a very bad way to do. I always do learn my lesson for not planning ahead. Many of us faces things like this especially students. We DON'T PLAN AHEAD. And when the time comes, we face what I call, deepshit. A bit vulgar eh. But there is no other better word to describe the deepshit that we will be facing if we don't plan.

Planning starts a a very early stage of life. Ever since we started on our primary school, we are learning to plan. Planning is a very essential thing to do every day. It helps you in getting more 'Me-Time' So on today's topic, we will be discussing on planning.

I know, I'm not the most suitable person to be saying this, but, passing through one tough semester, I've learned that I need to plan very far ahead. Not to say like plan for 5 or 10 years ahead. That is generally impossible. You can't know what will happen in 5 or 10 years. You can't even know what is going to happen in the next minute. But planning is just a backup to your already successful life.

The first step of planning, is to have a very clear mind of what you are going to do. Why do I say this? Well, planning takes time. Every planning does. If we don't even know what we are going to do for the day, why plan? Just stay home and sleep. But you still have tons of things that you need to do. Like piles of them. So what are you going to do? Be clear of what your tasks at hand. Until you finish, don't take up any other tasks.

Second, is to know your limits. Continuation to what I've said above, being clear of the tasks at hand. If you think you can do it, then take the task. But if you really can't cope, drop it. I have a very good example. I am currently proceeding to my final year in my uni. Well, although I'm still in my second year, I've took up  my research paper course which requires us to do our research. On top of that, I still have other assignments to do. Well, I did not know that the subjects will have this much workload. So, I am very confident with myself, I took up all the major courses. To be honest, I really regretted. I thought I can work it out. I THOUGHT. But, little did I know that my limit was just to that level. People were calling me crazy taking this heavy load. But, I don't care. I didn't want to believe that I can't do it. So to make the story short, I failed quite badly to be said.

Although I still managed to work everything out, but I still am disappointed in my end product. This is the result of not planning. If I have planned, I would not have missed so many classes to cover up for my undone assignments. I know. Some of you readers might think that I am a bad student. I accept that I am a bad student. I miss classes. So planning is very important, knowing your limits it a step before planning.

After all those, is to keep a mental calendar very clearly in your mind. As I have this much workload for my work and stuff, I tend to get messed up on dates. Well, another real life example from me. I always don't refresh my calendar very well. When people tell me that I have this to do on this day, I will say that it is ok, I can attend. But then, the problem comes after this. Suddenly, something on the back of your mind just came to the very front and you have another appointment on the same day. Well, you just have to choose. But, by choosing, you are loosing a lot from the party you rejected. You lost faith and confidence from them. It's a bad way. So plan very well for everything.

Planning, for someone like me is a very tough job. But for some people, it's a very easy job. So what do you think about it? For me, personally, after being through this semester, I think that I have to configure my brains to adjust it better. Plan plan plan. If I don't, the future would be very difficult to me.

Oh, and one last thing about planning. Follow whatever you have planned. Jot down whatever you have planned so that you would not forget. Always refer back to what you have planned. If not, you would have suffered. Please, if you have any comments regarding on this, please ask the professional. People are giving courses to planning. But you can still comment on what you think about it. I am more than happy to share more with you.

Cheerios,
YiXin Ching
chingyixin1@gmail.com