Some or the other day you may have found yourself in the place where no plan seems to work out for you. A task that you decided to accomplish in three days or a maximum of five days, but you find yourself working on the same task even after two weeks. By now you start feeling that you have wasted your resources more than you have utilised.
How to plan and how to execute your plans can be a tough learning experience. Especially if you are new to time organising “Planning” can be a challenging task for you. Have you ever wondered why your plans do not work and how you can learn effective planning strategies? For many of us, the reason behind a bad plan could be our brains.
Mostly you will find creative people struggling to accomplish their plans. Creative individuals tend to think about everything in a picture or portrait form, which eventually makes it difficult for them translating their ideas or plans into practical actions. Incredibly creative people do not have a calculative mind. Their brains can paint their thoughts, but for any progress, they need somebody who can guide them step-by-step. This is because their minds are trained to form conceptual ideas but not to fit them in their calendars.
Brain Science
According to Dr Katherine Benziger, some people’s brain is naturally wired in a way that they can maintain orders, while others find it difficult to keep plans active. Therefore, every good and bad planning depend on brain science. New research shows that the area of our brain that works as a storehouse for general knowledge, is the portion that decides our ability to imagine and plan for our future.
Thinking about your future is an important part of life as it helps us to anticipate the results of our present day actions and plan accordingly. For instance, a person who has dementia may forget to switch off the gas stove, because they find difficulty in remembering an appropriate action. However, this also happens because the people who have dementia do not recognise or anticipate the dangerous consequences of the current actions.
People who naturally have a brain dominance in the back-left portion of their brain tend to be more comfortable in making linear plans and accomplishing them. These individuals do not need any guidance or help in following what they plan. On the other hand, individuals who have brain dominance in other parts of their brain quadrant, find making and managing plans harder. This is because, people with zero brain dominance in the back-left portion, need to use 100 times more energy in planning and execution, than others.
Is Planning inherited?
Just like writing, creativity and analysis skills are owned by some specific individuals, ease of planning is something that you inherit at the time of birth. Ease of planning is connected to our brain quadrants, hence either we are born with it, or we are not. However, there is no such science which says, you cannot develop planning skills by manually building your neuro-connection through persistence practice.
Either from high school teachers or our parents, we have always heard the phrase “practice makes you perfect”. If our brain has parts that dominate planning, there are tissues that help in learning, acquiring and mastering certain skills.
Rewire your brain: Learning
Whenever an individual learns a new skill, whether it is playing chess, providing customer support on chat or phone, or cycling, we are engaging our brain on a deep level and changing the way it is wired. Scientists have compared our brain to plastic because our brain does not become hard till the age of 25 and remain solid for the rest of the life. However, it has been proved by researchers that older adults do have a chance to see real transformations in their neurocircuitry with practice.
Irrespective of the task a human mind is about to start, there are various portions of the brain that needs to be activated. This methodology applies to all sorts of context, including experiencing different feelings, language learning, exercising and even having your food.
To accomplish any task gracefully and successfully, you require brain coordination to a set of actions including audio and video processing, motor function, verbal language skills and other similar activities. Practice is what helps you get smoother on your job and make you feel more comfortable and natural. What practice do is assist the brain in optimising for a set of coordinating activities, with the aid of a process known as myelination.
What is Myelination and how it helps?
Our brains are termed as “grey matter”, as most of the brain looks grey from outside. Although, it is not commonly known that 50% of our brains are filled with “white matter”, which is known as myelin. Most of the long axons extending to our neurons are covered by this white stuffy material called myelin. According to scientists, myelination helps increase strength and speed of the nerve impulses by executing a force on an electric charge of the brain to jump across myelin sheath, towards the next open axon spot.
Kid’s brain is like a myelin generating device, but older adults require more effort, as myelin develops a slower growth rate with age. This is where practice and patience come into existence.
Use knowledge of your brain to build resilience with planning
If you find yourself in great trouble while planning something, you do not have a natural brain dominance in your back-left portion of the brain. Therefore, you will have to train your brain to start planning. Here are some great way of training your brain and practising planning:
#1 Find out your natural strength and weakness
To understand which part of your brain is more dominant, do a self-analysis. You can also follow the book “Thriving in Mind” by Dr Katherine Benziger to do a self-assessment. Learning your temperament and understanding your difficulties can help you adjust your habits.
#2 Accept your problems
When we expect something to be easy and it turns out to be hard, we become upset and give up. However, if we set our expectations that the task we are going to take up is difficult, but we still want to take up the challenge, this habit becomes a part of our life. When you understand that challenge is the part of the process, you will start making progress.
#3 Find methods that work
Do not force yourself into an old school, well-established scheduling process. Indulge yourself in a system that you know, will work with you. For example, if you have a strong bend towards art and visuals, plan everything in the same preference. Make pie charts, draw graphs or pictographs on the whiteboard and put your to-do list on sticky notes. This will help you grasp your plans more quickly. Regular practice of this method will help you visually plan and accomplish your tasks.
#4 Do not give up
The best way to define resilience is to bounce back every time you feel out of shape. Whenever you see yourself in a frustrated mode while planning something, have self-compassion, refocus and adjust your plans accordingly.
Understanding your brain and its working can help you acquire time management skill and show a dramatic change in your ability to work under pressure, frustration and obstacles. Regular practice will not only make you habitual of planning but also enhance your thinking skills. When your brain is convinced that you can change and accept the need for hard work, you will see a much higher chance to be resilient in the process of your planning improvisation.
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