tag of mwolson@gnu.org--2006/planner--main--1.0--patch-7

[planner-el.git] / COMMENTARY

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Note: This is one way of planning. It isn't the only way of planning,
and we will gladly help you find yours. =) - Sacha Chua
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Commentary
by John Wiegley (johnw AT gnu DOT org)

What is planning?  It can be a nebulous thing to define.  In its
essence, however, it is very simple: it's how we achieve our dreams.

Our days are filled with time, and hence with actions, whether they
be of a mental or physical sort.  But there are two kinds of
action: reactive and creative.  Reactive action is a response to
the environment, a reaction to stimulus.  Had we enough instincts
to ensure survival, we could live according to this kind of action
alone.  It is a mode of behavior we share with every living
species.

The opposite to reactivity is creativity, when we decide upon a
course of action that is a wholly a product of personal choice.  We
then make decisions as to the steps needed to make this wish a
reality.  This is planning.  Planning is essentially a creative
endeavor at every step.

First, create the idea, what you want to achieve.  Very short-term
ideas do not need much more than thinking about how to do it.  But
long-term ideas require planning, since the mind cannot contain all
of the details.

Second, decide how the idea maps into the circumstances you find
yourself in.  Some environments will assist your plan, others
hinder it.  But step by step, identify every barrier to the
realization of your idea, and devise a countermeasure to overcome
it.  Once you've mapped things out from beginning to end,
accounting for unknowables as best you can, you now have your plan.

Third is to break the stages of the plan into parts that are not
overwhelming in their complexity.  It is at during this phase that
a plan is turned into task items, each to be accomplished within
the span of one day's time.  If a task requires several days, break
it up further.  The smaller it is, the less your mind will recoil
from attempting it.

Fourth is to monitor your progress, identifying problems and
correcting for them as you go.  Some plans start out unachievable,
and remain that way indefinitely, due to a simple lack of
observation.  If nothing is working for you, change it.  Otherwise,
your plan is merely a well-crafted wish.

Fifth is just to do the work, and be patient.  All good plans take
a great deal of time, and *cannot* happen immediately.  The
groundwork must be laid for each step, or else it will rest on an
unsecure foundation.  If you follow your plan doggedly, applying
some time to it each day or week, it _will_ happen.  Remember the
story of the tortoise and the hare.  I've even written a short
essay on the necessity of gradual accomplishment, which can be
found at http://emacswiki.org/johnw/essays/node2.html .

How can this software help?  Computers are ideal for manipulating
information, since they allow you to change things without erasing
or rewriting.  And since all plans change quite a bit during their
implementation, a planning program can be very helpful.

Start by adding the following to your .emacs file:

  (load "planner")

Now, conceive your idea.  I can't believe there's nothing you want
from life.  More peace, time to enjoy the world, an end to war?
Everyone wants something.  Search deeply, and you will find
countless unhoped wishes lurking therein.  Choose one for now, and
think on it for a while.

Then open a file (using C-x C-f) within the directory named by
`planner-directory'.  Emacs will automatically recognize this file
as a planner file.  Name the file after your plan, such as
"BetterHealth".

Choose an idea you really want to accomplish.  Struggle to
differentiate between the things you want because others want them,
and the things you want for yourself.  It takes quite an effort,
and may require a long time before you notice the difference.  Many
people want to be more healthy to be more attractive, which is an
externally driven goal.  Unless _you_ really want to accomplish
what you envision, the odds are you will fail.  Only our own wishes
and dreams possess enough personal energy to see themselves to
fruition.  What happens to many of us is simply that we never
become conscious of these dreams: what we love, what we desire
most.  When I talk to friends, so much of what I hear is things
they want because they feel they should want them.  There's just
not enough energy there to pursue a good plan, because nearly all
of it is negative energy.

Do you know what you really want?  Don't worry, many people don't.
It's not a question anyone really wants us to pursue, because often
we don't want what others do; it doesn't contribute to the social
welfare, and all that nonsense.  Somehow we always forget that
what's good for the social welfare now, was someone else's crazy
dream a hundred years ago.  The human aversion to fundamental
change is always one's greatest enemy, so don't waste any time
getting bitter about it.

For the sake of argument I assume you really do want to be
healthier, because you've fallen in love with the ideal of purity,
or you understand the connection between your physical self and the
world around you, and how this can open up your spirit to desiring
more.  I assume.  :)

So you're in a Wiki file called BetterHealth.  Start typing.  Type
anything related to your idea: what you think about it, your ideas
on it, *and especially what the end will look like*.  If you can't
visualize the end, you can't plan, since planning is about drawing
a line between now and then.

When you've typed enough to gain a vision of your goal, start
drafting what the possible intermediate steps might be.  Then stop,
get up, walk around, enjoy life, and come back to it.  Taking a
long time at the beginning is not a bad idea at all, as long as
it's not forever.

As you chew on your idea, it will begin to become more and more
concrete.  You'll have ideas about the smallest pieces, and ideas
about the biggest pieces.  Keep going until it starts to take shape
before you, and you can see yourself in your mind's eye moving from
the present into the future.  Write down this progression, and the
sorts of things you might encounter along the way.

As you continue, you'll naturally discover discrete phases, or
"milestones" as managers love to call them.  These are very
important, because they let you know you're making progress.  I
recommend having a big party with friends every time you achieve a
milestone.  A typical plan might have between three and ten.

Between the milestones are the bigger pieces of your plan.  Name
these pieces using MixedCase words, and you'll notice that Emacs
colors and underlines them for you.  Like, FindGoodGym.  Hit return
on this highlighted word, and you'll find yourself in another,
blank file.  In this file, start drafting your sub-plan, just as
you did with the larger plan.  You should find it easier now, since
the scope is smaller.

As you break down further, you'll notice simple little things that
need to get done.  These are your tasks.  Every plan is a
succession of tasks.  The difference from reactivity is that each
task is part of the larger plan. This is what it means to be
systematic: that everything you do helps further your plan.  If you
have tasks in your day that contribute to no plan, they are
reactive.  Of course, life is full of these, but don't let them
take up more than 20% of your day.  If you allow yourself to be
dominated by reactive tasks, you'll regret it at the end of your
life.  I don't know this personally, but I do know that striving
for one's dreams -- and seeing them come to fruition -- is the
greatest joy a man can possess.  It is the essence of freedom, of
living, of creation.  Reactivity is the opposite of this, and
serves only to drain our energy and slacken our spirits.

Now that you've thought of a simple task, type C-c C-t.  This will
ask for a brief description of the task, and when you plan to do
it.  If you hit RETURN at the question 'When', it assumes you mean
today.  The Planner will also pop up a three-month calendar at this
question, so you can see where your free days are.  Make sure you
set the variable `mark-diary-entries-in-calendar' to t in your
.emacs file.  This way, you can see which days your appointments
fall on.  (Read about the Emacs Calendar and Diary in the Emacs
info manual).

  (setq mark-diary-entries-in-calendar t)

Once your task is in there, go back to your plan and keep
generating more tasks.  Generate them all!  Fully describe -- as
tasks -- everything necessary to bring your sub-plan to completion.
Don't create tasks for the other sub-plans.  You may have good idea
of what they'll look like, but don't bother rendering them into
tasks just yet.  Things will change too much between now and then,
for that to be a good use of your time.

Is your sub-plan now rendered into all of the tasks necessary to
reach your first milestone?  Great!  That is the purpose of
planner.el.  The rest is really up to you.  If you find that you
keep putting things off, and never do them, that's the surest sign
you're planning for someone else's dream, and not your own.

Here are some of the things planner.el can do, to help you manage
and track your tasks:

At the beginning of every day, type M-x plan.  This will jump you
to the top of the most recent task list before today.  If you
skipped a bunch of days, you'll have to open up those files on your
own.

Probably some of the tasks that day won't be finished -- that's OK.
Learning to properly estimate time is a magical, mystical art that
few have mastered.  Put your cursor on those undone tasks, and type
C-c C-c.  This will move them into today's task page.  You can jump
to today's task page at any time by typing C-c C-n (from a Wiki or
planning page).  I heartily recommend binding C-c n, to jump you to
this page from anywhere:

  (define-key mode-specific-map [?n] 'planner-goto-today)

As you look at your task sheet each day, the first thing to do is
to "clock in" to one of them.  This isn't necessary, and is only
helpful if you're around your computer a lot.  But by typing C-c
C-i (assuming you have my timeclock.el on your load-path), it will
log the time you spend working on your sub-plan.  This is helpful
for viewing your progress.  Type C-c C-o to clock out.

C-c C-u and C-c C-d will move a task up and down in priority.  The
priority scheme has two components: a letter A through C, and a
number from 1 onwards.  'A' tasks mean they must be done that day,
or else your plan is compromised and you will have to replan.  'B'
means they should be done that day, to further the plan, otherwise
things will be delayed.  'C' means you can put off the task if you
need to, although ultimately it will have to be done.

For reactive tasks, the letters mean something different: 'A' means
you must do it today, or somebody will roast your chestnuts over an
open fire.  'B' means you should do it today, or else someone will
be practicing patience at the day's end.  'C' means no one will
notice if you don't do it.

Again, reactive tasks are ENEMIES OF PLANNING.  Really, until you
see them that way, circumstances will push you around and steal
your life away.  We have only so many years to use, and everyone is
greedy to take them.  It's insidious, almost invisible.  A healthy
dislike of reactivity will do wonders for organizing your affairs
according to their true priority.

The last word that needs to be said concerns "roles".  Every person
stands in several positions in his life: husband, employee,
manager, etc.  These roles will tend to generate tasks not
associated with any immediate plan, but necessary to maintain the
health and functioning of the role.  My suggestion is to keep this
the smallest possible number, and fulfill those that remain well.
How you decide to apportion your time between pursuing grand
designs, and fostering deep relationships, is a personal matter.
If you choose well, each will feed the other.

I mention this to point that reactivity is something not
exclusively associated with tasks that have no master plan, because
being a father, for example, is something that rarely proceeds
according to orderly plans.  But the role of father itself is its
own plan, whose goal is "to be the best one can", and whose
component tasks are spending time on whatever comes up.  It is, in
a sense, an implicit plan.  But reactive tasks follow no plan at
all; they are parasites of time that suck the spirit away, whereas
properly chose roles actually help fulfill one's own inner needs.
At least, this is what I believe.