Planning (Too Far) Ahead

I believe that it is generally important to plan ahead. That's why I maintain a rotating To Do list, listing what I need to do on or by certain days and taking each day as it comes, always looking a short way ahead to see what's coming up next. Yet, it occurs to me that the extent to which one can plan ahead depends on a lot of factors, including some unknown and unknowable factors.

No one can predict the future. No one had Covid-19 scheduled in their plans for 2020. Unforeseen events can mess with one's plans, and the further one plans ahead, the more likely it is that unexpected events will interfere with those plans. Granted, you can schedule in some resiliency, such as by setting aside more time for a task than you think the task will take, in case something goes wrong and the task takes longer than expected. And one can adjust their plans as needed as they go. But I'm not sure how much value there is in making plans that you know are going to have to change later anyway.

There are also personal limitations to consider. Sometimes, people just don't have the time or energy to plan too far ahead. My rotating To Do list, for example, rarely goes beyond a few weeks. Planning too far ahead can, in some cases, lead to anxiety about tasks that, realistically, can't be addressed yet and aren't even issues yet. It depends mostly on a person's frame of mind. If you can look at a distant future task and not worry about it yet, that's great. If you find that your anxiety is doing more harm to you than the good your plan is doing, it might be better to not plan that far ahead.

In general, it's good to plan ahead. It's usually better to have a plan than to not have one. Yet, our lack of knowledge about the future and our lack of ability to deal with the future can create practical limitations to our ability to plan ahead. Planning ahead is an excellent idea, but it still makes sense to not try to plan too far ahead.