I’m planning to start The Unplanning Project on September 1st. The idea is I’ll stop planning things for a year. Those who know me well, know I love planning. I love making lists. I love crossing things off my lists. I even have a special planner that lets me plan every hour of my day and write my goals down for each month and week. But this year I’m taking a break.
My goal for this project is to learn to live more in the moment and go with the flow rather than be constricted by my plans.
I still have goals. I still have things I want to get done. But I want to wander more aimlessly and leisurely to get there.
The idea is, each month I will pick one thing to not plan. September will be the month of not planning where I will sleep each night. Every night I’ll have to sleep somewhere. I just won’t plan it ahead of time.
My time frame for this game is one day. I can plan things on that day for that day. Just not before that day, or a few days ahead of time.
I’m starting the month with a bike trip, so that will be a good way to get in the groove of not planning things. I’ll ride for a few miles, and when I feel like stopping I’ll pitch a tent or look up a jimjilbang.
Basically the purpose of The Unplanning Project is to create “Structured Spontaneity.” I came up with this term about a year and a half ago to describe how I like my spontaneity- in small doses where I’ve carved out time to be spontaneous. Within the time frame I can be as spontaneous as I want, or around a given parameter. Maybe the more I practice Structured Spontaneity, the more spontaneity will just flow over into my daily life.
The Salgu Files 