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May 06, 2004
Project planning and life
My job has me planning almost any task that takes more than a few minutes. My natural reaction to groups of half-day tasks has become to want to plan it. I have come to resent long and late interruptions.
Nathalie did not react as I would have this morning. I've a long list of things to do for this vacation. She has a lot of things she'd like to do, and that she wants me to do, or condition what I do, but she has no list, no plan. She told me when I suggested we plan it that she didn't want to get stressed out about it. I said that we get stressed out when we don't plan and cannot finish everything we have to do.
We seem to be having this same debate at work. Those against planning correctly observe that we'll continue to have interruptions to handle, but then conclude from that there's little point in putting together much of a plan. Instead, they say we should find ways of working that don't involve planning. Others also start by observing that we'll continue to have interruptions to handle, and that the way to avoid being submerged by interruptions lies in fitting as many activities as possible to a plan.
Perhaps neither side really has the rhetorical upper hand. If we disagree permanently on this, how should we live with that? Must I plan spontaneity? Must I give up planning?
Posted by Mark at May 6, 2004 11:34 PM