Personality Profile Part 5 - Conscientiousness / Planner
And now for my planning. Heh.
Planner
Around the same time each year you buy yourself a new planner, or sit down in front of a scheduling program and, when you can find an hour of the time between meetings and social events you organize dates that are already committed: monthly meetings of various work and volunteer organizations, the date of your cousin's wedding, tentative vacations plans to ski for a weekend in January and take two weeks in the summer somewhere where it's warm. Then week by week, or sometimes every two weeks, you keep the planner up to date with stuff that comes up at work, dates with friends, a concert you bought tickets for and need to find a friend to take, reminders of your parents' anniversary, various birthdays and baby showers - the dedicated times that form the skeleton you hang the flesh and blood of your life on.
Maybe the person you're closest to at work or your best friend or your partner is a little more organized than you are; they've written in lunch commitments two months in advance, every staff meeting at work, and notes to themselves to read for an evening or hike on a Saturday: they've lined out their lives on the pages of their planner. You're more willing than they are to make up most of it as you go along; you plan enough not to miss the essential commitments, but then keep yourself flexible so you can respond in a day - or sometimes in an hour, or a few minutes - to something that comes up. And you're comfortable with this much order combined with this much spontaneity. You don't forget important things, but you allow yourself the breathing room to say Yes or No depending upon what comes walking toward you.
This doesn't make you a flake, or mean that you're irresponsible. In fact you are at your most efficient and productive, make your best contributions and find the greatest satisfaction precisely because you have just enough structure to know where you're going and enough freedom to take your time with work or friends, respond when something unexpected comes along, and really concentrate on what's in front of you without being distracted by some note in your calendar reminding you to run off to the stationary store because you'll run out of supplies by a week from Friday.
People with more detailed plans might find you frustrating; when they can answer immediately Yes or No to an invitation weeks in advance just by checking their well-documented calendars, you have to say, "I'm not sure, let me get back to you". But frankly, that's the best response for you. You need the time, because you always want room to commit or not commit, depending upon what emerges as the next best use of your time and energy. This is in fact one of your great strengths; you know how to marshal your resources and allot time and energy in ways that keep you both productive and happy. Enough planning to know the general lay of the land, and enough flexibility to change directions or priorities: it works very well for you.
So at the same time next year you'll buy your annual planner, find an hour sooner or later, and go through this ritual of ordering your life just enough to keep yourself on track but not so much that you give up the freedom to say Yes to something new that seems in the moment to be exactly what you want to do.
Planner
Around the same time each year you buy yourself a new planner, or sit down in front of a scheduling program and, when you can find an hour of the time between meetings and social events you organize dates that are already committed: monthly meetings of various work and volunteer organizations, the date of your cousin's wedding, tentative vacations plans to ski for a weekend in January and take two weeks in the summer somewhere where it's warm. Then week by week, or sometimes every two weeks, you keep the planner up to date with stuff that comes up at work, dates with friends, a concert you bought tickets for and need to find a friend to take, reminders of your parents' anniversary, various birthdays and baby showers - the dedicated times that form the skeleton you hang the flesh and blood of your life on.
Maybe the person you're closest to at work or your best friend or your partner is a little more organized than you are; they've written in lunch commitments two months in advance, every staff meeting at work, and notes to themselves to read for an evening or hike on a Saturday: they've lined out their lives on the pages of their planner. You're more willing than they are to make up most of it as you go along; you plan enough not to miss the essential commitments, but then keep yourself flexible so you can respond in a day - or sometimes in an hour, or a few minutes - to something that comes up. And you're comfortable with this much order combined with this much spontaneity. You don't forget important things, but you allow yourself the breathing room to say Yes or No depending upon what comes walking toward you.
This doesn't make you a flake, or mean that you're irresponsible. In fact you are at your most efficient and productive, make your best contributions and find the greatest satisfaction precisely because you have just enough structure to know where you're going and enough freedom to take your time with work or friends, respond when something unexpected comes along, and really concentrate on what's in front of you without being distracted by some note in your calendar reminding you to run off to the stationary store because you'll run out of supplies by a week from Friday.
People with more detailed plans might find you frustrating; when they can answer immediately Yes or No to an invitation weeks in advance just by checking their well-documented calendars, you have to say, "I'm not sure, let me get back to you". But frankly, that's the best response for you. You need the time, because you always want room to commit or not commit, depending upon what emerges as the next best use of your time and energy. This is in fact one of your great strengths; you know how to marshal your resources and allot time and energy in ways that keep you both productive and happy. Enough planning to know the general lay of the land, and enough flexibility to change directions or priorities: it works very well for you.
So at the same time next year you'll buy your annual planner, find an hour sooner or later, and go through this ritual of ordering your life just enough to keep yourself on track but not so much that you give up the freedom to say Yes to something new that seems in the moment to be exactly what you want to do.