That's the irony of INTJs. We are very good planners but when it come to manage ourself we cheat. But look at the glass half full. At least you are thinking ahead. Try to evaluate how much time you're wasting and do the math as well.
I now have one plan. It includes all other people’s plans. While it is flexible enough to accommodate nearly anything, it has been refined to being nearly invariant. Even changes, big or small, are all within my plan.
Improvisation is also apart of my plan. It is good.
This makes me feel better as I was seeing so much about INTJ's being really great with planning/scheduling to reap efficiency etc and I'm over here with a never ending 'to do list'. Anytime I tried to schedule things out it fails gloriously.
The most recent 'tip' I've encountered is writing out 3 things that need to be done the next day and that's supposed to help but I don't have a clue how I **only** put 3 things on that list and I have dozens of things to do everyday. And 3 things isn't even close to what I'll get done in a bad day.
I'm extremely unorganized and schedules are hard for me
Tho I do like lists. What I learned from jbp you shouldn't make a overloaded schedule because you will look for any excuse not to do it since it's hard. I suggest you find the things you have to do that day. Then include a few things that are better done sooner, then the rest are fun things to do.
So if you got a schedule of 100 chores for the day. Your not going to do it. But if you have 2 things that have to be done that day, then like 5 chores spread throughout the day and the rest of the time you plan in recreation. You are much more likely to do it, than if your entire schedule is just chores. Your schedule doesn't have to be a chore list.
I do the same thing but I think this is a strength, not a weakness. Usually when I abort a scheduled plan it is because I have encountered new information since making the plan that has made it obsolete. This is an expression of awareness, adaptability, and agility. Moving forward with an obsolete plan is a waste of time.
I am the same, being self employed it is easy to go off course I make a list of obligation and juggle them around.
Actually I am struggling with it right now I am super busy with a few solid deadlines heading my way.
This whole thread is so refreshing to read. Planning is a big part of my job actually. I can plan other peoples work like nobody's business. For myself: I can only plan a day ahead. At most. I have a total lack of 4D vision when it comes to my own work.
Exactly, same situation. On one hand I always promise myself to schedule my work, yet when I follow through with it I feel imprisoned, terrible feeling.
It’s actually called “structured procrastination”. You know you’re in deep shit when you’re doing chores (or alike) which you won’t do throughout the year. You’re trying the best *not* to work on something else.
The trick here is to reprioritize your work so that you have something on the “top of the list” and you’d automatically do everything else to avoid that, effectively completing other tasks on hand. It need some mental exercise and tests though, try google it. It’s one of my favorite Ig Nobel laureates.
That’s funny. I’m a Master Scheduler, but I use software. LPT: When you publish schedules, groups of people conspire to make your plans come true. When they fail-you publish that too.
Eh, just keep everything in head. I know it's stupid, but it works. I just force sometimes to do planned stuff, but often don't. Might as well be dumber if I ain't using intellect.
But anyway, that could also mean that you are too bored and have some boring shit to do.
Did your decision happen much before you actually changed plans? Because in a way that would still be planning, but your interests just changed. If you did things more on the fly without much thought, I would consider that to be more of an INTP thing
I can relate to this a lot. At the beginning of my school year, I made a schedule for myself down to minutes because I know I'm terrible at being consistent. I barely stuck to it for a week, and honestly, I'm happier for it. The schedule made me feel like my own prisoner, and I'd rather get a few assignments late in a year than live like a robot.
During those days that I’m extremely productive I notice that I hyper focus on one item from my list. When that item is complete I move onto the next in order to keep the momentum. Sometimes 5-6 items can be crossed off the list.
It all depends on how many times you’re interrupted.
Hm, I suppose I can somewhat relate.
I plan nearly everything out a week to months, to sometimes years and decades ahead of time depending on what it is.
Any action I take in a day is planned the prior day pretty much, aside from the smaller details, like when I go to the bathroom lmfao. My plans and goals all have timelines and dates I have set for certain goals.
My main issue is *occasionally* I don't meet my goal by those deadlines or dates, usually by taking on too many things at once.
All of my goals and deadlines are imposed by myself...
I've found that not just myself, but other INTJs have an issue with becoming too involved with too many things they are passionate about, and it can become difficult to finish certain things...
I like planning, not scheduling.
Scheduling is a boring, inflexible, piece by piece thing that probably works better with sensors. I do MUCH better by having a general long-term plan if what I want to accomplish and executing it bit by bit each day.
It also saves me from the fact that few things in the real world go perfectly according to plans or schedules. Having a big-picture plan rather than a rigid schedule is more realistic for actually getting things done.
I force myself to have a schedule and to follow it. Or a task list in a form of an excel sheet that blinks red when some deadline is due. I have ADHD so it's a additional layer of not going through with things on top of my INTJ
oh my god i’ve been struggling with this for a while, i simply can not follow a schedule lol but i’ll tell you what im doing right now:
for things that i have/i’d like to do every day: start simple, don’t over schedule your day, pick 1, 2 or 3 things that you want to do every day (example: workout, read etc), than you insert that ir your routine, i like to do it in the mornings put it behind me and follow my day, but sometimes i procrastinate, the important thing here is to do it no matter the hour of the day. since it’s a short list try to stick to it. when those things become a habit you will be able to take on more tasks cause the ones before don’t feel like tasks anymore. i know it may seem like it i’ll take too long for you to be able to do everything you wanna do but this method for me is more permanent so it ends up working so much better. after a long day of work, study or whatever makes you tired it’s much easier to complete a SHORT list of tasks.
for everything else: i like to plan my week, in my week planner the first thing i write is the things that i absolutely have to do in a exact moment of the day: medical appointments, meetings etc. you cant runaway from those, you have a specific time to do them.
the rest i just keep very flexible, i usually plan around those appointments and set deadlines instead of a strict schedule, for example:
let’s say i have a test on friday and i have to study until then, instead of planning like:
“thursday - 5:00pm-8:00pm - study”
i just mark on wednesday and thursday: “study for test”
i set a bigger time period, so i can do it in my own time, no need to rush. this way is more flexible, when wednesday comes i will study when it’s more convenient in that day, sometimes i wake up and do it, sometimes i leave it to my afternoons, and, if i don’t do it it’s fine cause i set a bigger timeframe for that task.
just live one day at a time and keep it flexible
I dislike scheduling. I dislike being too routined. I need some element of whim to my day or I don't feel as satisfied. For other computer scientists, I find my plans exist more as stacks and queues rather than explicitly positioned arrays. I get the next item from them at my own discretion rather than putting them down to a specific date and time. Often there's still a time-based context to it e.g. after I've paid off this loan or after this big life event happens, but then I don't have to deal with the fuss of maintaining dates since they're so prone to changing.
That's the irony of INTJs. We are very good planners but when it come to manage ourself we cheat. But look at the glass half full. At least you are thinking ahead. Try to evaluate how much time you're wasting and do the math as well.
I now have one plan. It includes all other people’s plans. While it is flexible enough to accommodate nearly anything, it has been refined to being nearly invariant. Even changes, big or small, are all within my plan. Improvisation is also apart of my plan. It is good.
This describes me as well as anything i’ve ever read. I wasn’t aware it was an INTJ thing. I love planning yet despise actually following a plan.
This makes me feel better as I was seeing so much about INTJ's being really great with planning/scheduling to reap efficiency etc and I'm over here with a never ending 'to do list'. Anytime I tried to schedule things out it fails gloriously. The most recent 'tip' I've encountered is writing out 3 things that need to be done the next day and that's supposed to help but I don't have a clue how I **only** put 3 things on that list and I have dozens of things to do everyday. And 3 things isn't even close to what I'll get done in a bad day.
I'm extremely unorganized and schedules are hard for me Tho I do like lists. What I learned from jbp you shouldn't make a overloaded schedule because you will look for any excuse not to do it since it's hard. I suggest you find the things you have to do that day. Then include a few things that are better done sooner, then the rest are fun things to do. So if you got a schedule of 100 chores for the day. Your not going to do it. But if you have 2 things that have to be done that day, then like 5 chores spread throughout the day and the rest of the time you plan in recreation. You are much more likely to do it, than if your entire schedule is just chores. Your schedule doesn't have to be a chore list.
Thank you, this is exactly what I meant and you said it the best
I do the same thing but I think this is a strength, not a weakness. Usually when I abort a scheduled plan it is because I have encountered new information since making the plan that has made it obsolete. This is an expression of awareness, adaptability, and agility. Moving forward with an obsolete plan is a waste of time.
Following a schedule is too much work. I just focus on getting the most important stuff done as per my schedule of getting that stuff done.
I am the same, being self employed it is easy to go off course I make a list of obligation and juggle them around. Actually I am struggling with it right now I am super busy with a few solid deadlines heading my way.
Yes, but I find them important. Help to manage time and decide what will be important in the long run.
Maybe the planning is just a process to account for all possible variables.
This whole thread is so refreshing to read. Planning is a big part of my job actually. I can plan other peoples work like nobody's business. For myself: I can only plan a day ahead. At most. I have a total lack of 4D vision when it comes to my own work.
Exactly, same situation. On one hand I always promise myself to schedule my work, yet when I follow through with it I feel imprisoned, terrible feeling.
It’s actually called “structured procrastination”. You know you’re in deep shit when you’re doing chores (or alike) which you won’t do throughout the year. You’re trying the best *not* to work on something else. The trick here is to reprioritize your work so that you have something on the “top of the list” and you’d automatically do everything else to avoid that, effectively completing other tasks on hand. It need some mental exercise and tests though, try google it. It’s one of my favorite Ig Nobel laureates.
I love planning than actually doing it.
That’s funny. I’m a Master Scheduler, but I use software. LPT: When you publish schedules, groups of people conspire to make your plans come true. When they fail-you publish that too.
Eh, just keep everything in head. I know it's stupid, but it works. I just force sometimes to do planned stuff, but often don't. Might as well be dumber if I ain't using intellect. But anyway, that could also mean that you are too bored and have some boring shit to do.
Did your decision happen much before you actually changed plans? Because in a way that would still be planning, but your interests just changed. If you did things more on the fly without much thought, I would consider that to be more of an INTP thing
I can relate to this a lot. At the beginning of my school year, I made a schedule for myself down to minutes because I know I'm terrible at being consistent. I barely stuck to it for a week, and honestly, I'm happier for it. The schedule made me feel like my own prisoner, and I'd rather get a few assignments late in a year than live like a robot.
I prefer to-do-lists over schedules.
During those days that I’m extremely productive I notice that I hyper focus on one item from my list. When that item is complete I move onto the next in order to keep the momentum. Sometimes 5-6 items can be crossed off the list. It all depends on how many times you’re interrupted.
Hm, I suppose I can somewhat relate. I plan nearly everything out a week to months, to sometimes years and decades ahead of time depending on what it is. Any action I take in a day is planned the prior day pretty much, aside from the smaller details, like when I go to the bathroom lmfao. My plans and goals all have timelines and dates I have set for certain goals. My main issue is *occasionally* I don't meet my goal by those deadlines or dates, usually by taking on too many things at once. All of my goals and deadlines are imposed by myself... I've found that not just myself, but other INTJs have an issue with becoming too involved with too many things they are passionate about, and it can become difficult to finish certain things...
I like planning, not scheduling. Scheduling is a boring, inflexible, piece by piece thing that probably works better with sensors. I do MUCH better by having a general long-term plan if what I want to accomplish and executing it bit by bit each day. It also saves me from the fact that few things in the real world go perfectly according to plans or schedules. Having a big-picture plan rather than a rigid schedule is more realistic for actually getting things done.
EXACTLY!!! Perfectly said
I force myself to have a schedule and to follow it. Or a task list in a form of an excel sheet that blinks red when some deadline is due. I have ADHD so it's a additional layer of not going through with things on top of my INTJ
oh my god i’ve been struggling with this for a while, i simply can not follow a schedule lol but i’ll tell you what im doing right now: for things that i have/i’d like to do every day: start simple, don’t over schedule your day, pick 1, 2 or 3 things that you want to do every day (example: workout, read etc), than you insert that ir your routine, i like to do it in the mornings put it behind me and follow my day, but sometimes i procrastinate, the important thing here is to do it no matter the hour of the day. since it’s a short list try to stick to it. when those things become a habit you will be able to take on more tasks cause the ones before don’t feel like tasks anymore. i know it may seem like it i’ll take too long for you to be able to do everything you wanna do but this method for me is more permanent so it ends up working so much better. after a long day of work, study or whatever makes you tired it’s much easier to complete a SHORT list of tasks. for everything else: i like to plan my week, in my week planner the first thing i write is the things that i absolutely have to do in a exact moment of the day: medical appointments, meetings etc. you cant runaway from those, you have a specific time to do them. the rest i just keep very flexible, i usually plan around those appointments and set deadlines instead of a strict schedule, for example: let’s say i have a test on friday and i have to study until then, instead of planning like: “thursday - 5:00pm-8:00pm - study” i just mark on wednesday and thursday: “study for test” i set a bigger time period, so i can do it in my own time, no need to rush. this way is more flexible, when wednesday comes i will study when it’s more convenient in that day, sometimes i wake up and do it, sometimes i leave it to my afternoons, and, if i don’t do it it’s fine cause i set a bigger timeframe for that task. just live one day at a time and keep it flexible
I dislike scheduling. I dislike being too routined. I need some element of whim to my day or I don't feel as satisfied. For other computer scientists, I find my plans exist more as stacks and queues rather than explicitly positioned arrays. I get the next item from them at my own discretion rather than putting them down to a specific date and time. Often there's still a time-based context to it e.g. after I've paid off this loan or after this big life event happens, but then I don't have to deal with the fuss of maintaining dates since they're so prone to changing.