“Having no destination I am never lost” [Ikkyū]
When planning ahead, I usually only plan for one day. Everything after that is a little too far into the future for me, and I think it distracts from the present. If I plan too much, it may lead to multi-timing, which I try to avoid at all costs. Besides this, not planning too much is a way of practicing calendar yoga.
Of course, there are some things that need to be planned in advance. Most notibly, events like birthdays or hang-outs cannot usually be planned on the same day, as then it wouldn’t fit in everyone’s schedule. When it comes to my calendar then, I tend to only keep track of future events and obligations. Lastly, I practice something that I call “weak week planning”. While I set in stone the tasks I want to get done that day each morning, I simply assign days a certain theme for a week or even month. For example, knowing I have 5 courses I am enrolled in, I would theme each day around a certain subject, and make sure to keep one day free to finish everything I couldn’t on that day. The most important thing in this kind of scheduling is that I know that in a given week, everything will have a day assigned to it. These days are easily interchangable, but knowing what needs to be done in rough terms help me understand what trade-offs I am making when I decide to suddenly do something else.
In a sense, planning is all a game of trade-offs in time. We need to have a tool in order for us to understand what trade-offs we are making and what can absolutely not be changed, and everything beyond that is superfluous. I’d like to end things with some zen-poems.
[Zen Gatha] Chasing after the world // brings chaos // Allowing it all to come to me // brings peace
[Kobayashi Issa] O snail // Climb Mount Fuji // But slowly, slowly!
[Rengetsu] I see it dust // the river wind // then vanish - // fragile snow over water // disappears from my sight
[Rengetsu] Just playing // not doing // anything special - // the drawn traces // of an ink-soaked brush