Failure to plan is planning to fail.

Hello, everyone.

I welcome you to my blog and another wonderful edition of the Hive Learners' featured post. I was in JSS2 when the principal addressed us a week to exams and made the statement, "Failure to plan is planning to fail," and since then it has stuck with me. Over the years, I have seen the importance of planning ahead and the consequences of not having a plan at all. As much as making plans and going with them can be stressful and draining, I prefer it to not having any plans or coming up with one as I go. I have tried both having a plan and coming up with one as I go; I highly recommend having a plan set up before going rather than coming up with one as you go.

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There are individuals who plan their day from start to finish, and then there are individuals who just wake up in the morning and look forward to dealing with whatever comes their way. Your day might not always go as planned, but it still should not be an excuse not to have a plan mapped out. Having a plan gives you direction; you know exactly what to do after each task, and you know where to be at this hour and at that hour. When you are where you are supposed to be, you just know it, and you try to make adjustments when and where necessary.

Like I have said before, having a plan mapped out can reduce mistakes. We are humans, and we all make mistakes; we can be in the wrong places or be doing the wrong things at the right time and vice versa, but with a plan mapped out, we can gain better direction on when to do things, where to be when needed, and where not to be. One with a plan mapped out is a lot more reliable than one without a plan or one that just goes with the flow. At least when you take a look at their plan, you will see that the task you gave them is on their plan, while those without any plans tell you something like, "When I get the chance, I will do it."

Having a plan mapped out can reduce flexibility and take away the ability to participate in activities that were not part of your initial plan. Adding unplanned events to your schedule becomes nearly impossible because your plan covers from the early hours of the day down till the late hours of the day; therefore, any event that was not part of the initial plan will not be able to fit in anywhere. Also, one who works with a plan always overthinks or worries too much because they have to meet up with every plan or to-do list. While those who make things up as they go enjoy a lot of flexibility and can add anything to their schedule since there was nothing there from the beginning.

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I am one of those who go with a plan; it has helped me deal with procrastination, which is one of the reasons I adopted the style of having a plan and a schedule for my day-to-day activities. When I was one who went with the flow, I procrastinated a lot; I kept saying I would do it later because I had so much free time, and most of the time that task or activity ended up crossing to the next day, and sometimes it became weeks of saying I would do it later, but things changed since I started working with a plan and abiding by it. As much as going with the flow provides flexibility and gives you the freedom you need to engage in unplanned events, having a plan is rigid and does not give you the time to engage in any unplanned event.