An alternative to organization and planning

One of the main things I’ve come to realize about getting things done and optimizing my creativity is that organization doesn’t help. To the contrary – it kinda gets in the way. You get so focused on keeping track of everything and being on top of your projects that you lose the flexibility and “looseness” that’s necessary for creativity to flow. You’ve got to let go of the illusion that you’re in control and embrace the uncertainty that’s part of any project in life.

Same with planning. Planning really is guessing and it’s totally useless. Like organization, planning kills creativity, motivation, and productivity.

The right method and work environment

Once I established this crucial understanding that organization (which really is a need for control and is a result of our insecurity) and planning (the need for planning also comes from similar fears) are harmful – then I needed to figure out a method where I would NOT need to worry about organizing, remembering, or planning too much.

It’s not about tools or anything like that. Though for sure using the right tools is important. But that’s secondary. First and foremost you need to work on yourself to overcome your fears. You need to develop the capacity to embrace the unknown and have the courage to setup an environment where you can “follow your heart” every single day, while committing to your goals at the same time.

I’ve spent a very long time trying to figure out what’s the best way to work.  For a while I was literally obsessed with the question of which method and work environment will yield the best results in terms of the following:

1. Loving what I do
2. Achieving my goals and
3. Be super efficient/productive when I work (i.e. spend the minimum amount of time and energy to achieve my goals while loving what I do)

In many ways I am still obsessed with this fascinating topic.

We all spend a lot of time working

We all spend a lot of time working. But most people don’t give a lot of thought on how to work. The result is a huge waste. Most of our lives are spent on trying to achieve this or that – be it for work or for other things. Yet all most people know about how to work is… well nothing really. You kinda do things the way you’re used to, or the way other people do them around you. Maybe you’re following the “blueprints” you’ve been taught at school and in college. It’s horrible.

Start by observing how you work and how spend your time at work, and question the conventional methods and work setups. Then experiment with alternatives.

A starting point

As a starting point I think there’s a pattern that can be applied to pretty much any project in life:

1. Commit to few realistic goals.
2. Break these down as many times as is necessary until you get to small concrete steps.
3. Share, collaborate, and publish your work on as many levels as possible.
4. Measure/track your progress to get a concrete sense of progress.
5. Reiterate.

Don’t worry about planning or organization too much .

The way I do it

Everyone is different and you may need to setup a work environment that’s adapted to your personality but I believe that some things are universal. For example I’m happy if I can work on what I want. Aren’t you? Isn’t anyone? Also, I stay motivated if I get a concrete sense that I’m achieving my goals. One step at a time. (The important word here is “concrete” which is why keeping track/measuring your progress is important as well.) Also having lots of flexibility in terms of time and schedule is much more efficient than the traditional stiff work hours most people are used to. And so on…

Don’t organize

Conventional organization isn’t useful. It just makes us feel better if everything is organized. But it also limits us in a lot of ways.

Think about it this way – let’s say you have a lot of files on your computer and keep them neatly organized in folders and sub-folders. That’s very limiting. Not only you spend a lot of time on organizing your files, but you can only organize a limited amount of data. If you keep going, at some point it’s just going to be too much. And when you need something, browsing through these files and folders isn’t efficient so you also have to remember where everything is so that you can find stuff later on, and that puts a lot of stress on your memory. It’s a simple example of why conventional organization is limited and limiting.

As an alternative try this: let all the files and data accumulate naturally without too much effort on your part. Then use a powerful search engine to leverage your associative thinking and sort the data for you when you need it. It’s a much more efficient method. BTW that’s one of the big secrets behind the success of search engines.

Of course this is just an example. But think about ways to not spend time organizing your work. There are many tools that can help with this approach once you have the right mindset.

Don’t plan

Planning is for the most part a waste of time. But if you set yourself specific goals that are tied to a time frame, they need to be available to you at the right time without having to be stressed out about them or make the effort to remember them. As a very simple example you can setup a calendar with email reminders set at the right times and forget about it.

I’ve transformed my vision and approach to working many times over. And I’m sure I’ll change many more times. But I’ve already experienced a liberating freedom in my professional life. I believe that’s within anyone’s reach. It’s a question of creating the right work environment.

Don’t stop here! Check out these related posts:

• Sometimes all these tools defeat the purpose
• What really matters is the ingredients