Here’s Why I Say No to Making Plans Six Weeks in Advance. More People Should Try It

Yet so much of modern life is structured with angles and plans, perhaps because we secretly believe that if we aren’t constantly steering our lives, we might lose our way. We might end up living under a bridge, outcast from the human choreography we call society. And it’s true that, in consensus culture, there is a balance that must be struck betwe

The trouble with being so emotionally invested in planning for the future, though, is that while it may occasionally prevent a catastrophe, the rest of the time it tends to exacerbate the very anxiety it was supposed to allay.

The Buddhist teacher Susan Piver points out that it can be surprisingly radical and discomfiting, for many of us, to ask how we’d enjoy spending our time. But at the very least, you shouldn’t rule out the possibility that the answer to that question is an indication of how you might use your time best.