Embrace Anti-Planning To Be More Productive

Embrace Anti-Planning To Be More Productive

We’ve all laid out plans to accomplish our goals and increase our productivity, but often they fall by the wayside. If conventional planning isn’t working for you, try diving into a new project without a plan, and adapt as you go along.

Photo by A_Berkut (Shutterstock).

Cal Newport at Study Hacks embraced the idea of an anti-plan, and came to love the concept. Instead of creating a set of goals and a system by which to achieve them, he decided to find out what worked best for him as he went along, and kept a journal of the process:

The theory behind anti-planning is that it exposes you to a much wider swath of the productivity plan landscape. Your journal will keep you updated on how well you’re doing, which provides the selective pressure needed to drive you toward some novel approaches to getting more depth out of your working habits.

Cal does mention that this journalling process was somewhat draining, and he found himself falling back into a set system after a few months. However, that system was optimised based on what he discovered during his anti-planning phase, and is more effective than what he would have come up with otherwise.

Do More By Planning Less: The Power of the Anti-Plan [Study Hacks]


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