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To Plan Or Not To Plan?

Writer's picture: Sarah DavisSarah Davis

It's been a little while since I wrote a blog post. It's not due to lack of topics - I've been creating a list of topics for blog posts from my work with grad students and what I've been reading online.


The end of the spring semester afforded me some time to take a break, and getting back into work has required adapting my usual approaches.


You've seen this image before - it's the self-regulated learning model that I adapted for graduate students:

SRL Cycle

I created this model to highlight the most important aspects of the types of work that grad students do. You can read more about this model here.


I took a couple of glorious weeks off work - I'm still fulfilling the post-PhD promise to myself that I would take breaks - and the Friday before I started work, I did what I always do - I started to plan.


Noticing that Microsoft Outlook has a new task manager, I experimented with setting up my tasks for the next week. I thought I was being realistic in how much time I was going to work the following week. I prefer to plan on Fridays so that when Monday comes, I'm ready to get going with the tasks at hand.


However, the next week came and I was struggling to follow ANY of those plans I had made for myself the week before. I did do some work, but it tended to be things that were quite random (e.g., SEO, website updates) rather than preparing for teaching, finding research articles, or other tasks I had set for myself.


And then I realized that two things were going on:

First, I hadn't spent time understanding the tasks I needed to get done.


Second, planning wasn't working for me. I just needed to do.


This is why the centre of the model above is so important - by using metacognition to monitor, evaluate, and adapt our approaches, we are able to face challenges. Once I realized that planning wasn't working, I knew something needed to change.


So, the next week, I didn't have a plan. It's not a busy time of year for me so there aren't as many deadlines and meetings that I have to attend. This lack of urgency is an important part of understanding the task of work for me right now.

I actually have the time to work on the things I want to work on, and my lack of wanting to plan is reflecting this.

See, for me, planning helps me be efficient and effective with my time - this is more useful during September to April when work is the busiest for me.

But, this is the spring/summer and I know that my fall/winter work approaches often don't work during these more relaxed times.


So, if you're in a bit of a lull with grad school right now, try not planning and see where you get to! What's most important is that you know why you may need to plan or why you may need NOT to plan - that is what will help you most at the end of each day.


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