Are You Prepared?
What kind of person are you usually - winging it or uber-prepared? Neither one is better or worse if they get you the desired outcome; they are just different ways of operating. However, if the way you operate causes you stress, that may not be your most successful mode.
An easy example for us to consider is holiday gift shopping. Some people created their lists, bought gifts throughout the year, and at this point, on December 9th, have everything bought, wrapped, and addressed. Others won't start their shopping until a few days before the holiday. I'm definitely in the middle. I've got many of the gifts purchased, but I still don't have a solid plan yet for the rest of the shopping, and nothing is wrapped (though it's in the weekend plan).
More broadly, I feel like I've become more of a winging-it type of person, though maybe it's actually more that I've become a last-minute person. Sometimes, that may seem (and maybe is) procrastination, but I wonder if it's more about managing priorities and energy. Yes, in some cases, I may be going into a meeting less prepared than I would like, but maybe that's ok because of the nature of the discussion. I don't need to beat myself up for not doing more. Though, I know when I regret a lack of preparation - it's when I don't have all of my thoughts ready to be well-articulated, and they come out more emotional than organized.
In Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World, Adam Grant wrote, “Procrastination may be the enemy of productivity, but it can be a resource for creativity. Long before the modern obsession with efficiency precipitated by the Industrial Revolution and the Protestant work ethic, civilizations recognized the benefits of procrastination. In ancient Egypt, there were two different verbs for procrastination: one denoted laziness; the other meant waiting for the right time.”
When I read this section of his work the first time, I was intrigued by his points about how Martin Luther King, Jr.'s most famous speech was not started until the day before and was being finalized right before he went on stage. We know how powerful that message was.
I think there's a nuance that we often forget. Being prepared doesn't have a timeline on it. We can be prepared a week in advance and have done multiple run-throughs or we can prepare the day before and still feel confident that we're ready. The key is to know what you need to do to feel ready to deliver your best.
We're nearing the end of 2023 and starting to think about 2024. It's a time of preparation. It is a time to contemplate what we want to carry forward from 2023 and what we want to be different for next year.
You don't have to be uber-organized and have everything laid out in the next few weeks. I recommend that you do this…start thinking about it. Jot some notes down that you can come back to closer to when you're ready to lock down your plan.
My interpretation of what Adam Grant discusses in his book is that when we get started like this, and we allow our brain to continue to play with the ideas for a bit, not under pressure, we're likely to come out with a better set of answers for ourselves. We're allowing the ideas to simmer. We're allowing new information to come in. We're taking the pressure off the idea generation.
If it would be useful to do some planning work together, there's a link below to sign up for a Powerful Planning session.