Perceivers: Does long-term planning and scheduling harm your work?

[Cenomite]

Ps generally procrastinate, and prefer open-ended lives without strict scheduling. We all know this.

I'm curious if any other Ps find that the quality of their work is lowered when they are forced to plan and outline everything.

For example: When I was in middle school, they forced essay/research guidelines on us that had us outlining things, making index cards, making thought webs, and following draft submission due dates. I found that this made my papers worse, and that I create much better work when it's the last minute and I'm free to follow my own devices. Planning things out to such an excruciating level kills my creativity and keeps in some good thoughts that would otherwise be on paper.

Do you experience this? Or do you simply prefer to procrastinate and not plan, but not for the benefit of your work?

 

[BlackCat]

I actually need to procrastinate and randomly start working on things to be effective. If I have to "force" myself to do an assignment when I know that there are 2234523452543 other interesting things that I could be doing other than that, I work much slower and the quality is much less than what I'd normally do. If I just suddenly feel "well maybe I should do that work" and totally zone in on that, it's great.

I generally work well under pressure, with that nagging thought in the back of my head that something needs to be done, but I'll do it on my own time.

 

[SillySapienne]

You can't fuck with the Flow, man.

 

[Cenomite]

You can't fuck with the Flow, man.

Word

 

[Matthew_Z]

You can't fuck with the Flow, man.

More for me.

 

[entropie]

long-term what ? Are you drunk ?

 

[Matthew_Z]

long-term what ? Are you drunk ?

You know, most people don't devote the second half of their posts to talk to themselves.

 

[Tamske]

No. Certainly not.
I need deadlines, otherwise I get nothing done. Then I am frustrated with myself, as I had such a lot of plans and never actually realizing them...
Let's make this clear. I have work (teaching) and a hobby (writing).
When my lessons are taught, I feel myself entitled to spend time writing. I actually write and am happy with that.
A few years ago, I was a researcher. There were no deadlines. So I procrastinated, surfing the 'net, never getting the research done that I wanted. And I didn't write, as I thought my work was not done.
So... yes, I want deadlines. And I want them to be set in stone. I don't want to make a structure myself; but give me the deadline and it will work. More or less.

 

[BerberElla]

No. Certainly not.
I need deadlines, otherwise I get nothing done. Then I am frustrated with myself, as I had such a lot of plans and never actually realizing them...
Let's make this clear. I have work (teaching) and a hobby (writing).
When my lessons are taught, I feel myself entitled to spend time writing. I actually write and am happy with that.
A few years ago, I was a researcher. There were no deadlines. So I procrastinated, surfing the 'net, never getting the research done that I wanted. And I didn't write, as I thought my work was not done.
So... yes, I want deadlines. And I want them to be set in stone. I don't want to make a structure myself; but give me the deadline and it will work. More or less.

I think this sums me up too. When it comes to my writing, just leave me to it, deadlines would lessen the quality of it, however for work and study I need deadlines otherwise I will just ignore it.

I need the rush of last minute agony that comes with meeting a deadline as I work very well under pressure.

 

[Trepidation]

It depends on how much planning is required. I need a deadline to get anything done (unless I suddenly feel like doing it one day), but planning and documenting every single part of a project is just too much and I completely lose interest. I only want to know what I need to do, and when it needs to be done by.

 

[Halla74]

I can work to any schedule.

My means of mitigating my natural contempt for an exceedingly micro-managed schedule is to make it a challenge to meet its demands above any expectations.

My competiveness trumps my natural desire for minimal time management.
Becoming a father made me great at time management, actually.

 

[sunshinebrighter]

I'm the opposite. When I tend to plan things it turns out better. I'm just too lazy and indifferent to do it.

 

[Halla74]

I'm the opposite. When I tend to plan things it turns out better. I'm just too lazy and indifferent to do it.

NICE!!!

 

[Spamtar]

Yea, I love being a P yet it does have its own baggage. The thought of being a J gives an impression it would be more convenient/managed.

 

[Polaris]

I'm not sure that a preference for P means that you don't like planning, much less that your work will suffer from it. I seem to be a P, and yet I plan most things in my life, particularly my work. Some people prefer to improvise, but I think the quality of what they produce suffers because of it. Their work meanders without ever cutting to the deepest issues, whereas the work of a planner has focus and purpose.

 

[Antimony]

I need deadlines, but I procrastinate till quite literally the last second, and then I generally manage to get it pushed back a few more days. I don't really plan in work. It crushes my creativity.

I love thinking about the future, however, especially involving what careers I want to go into. With work that I am indifferent towards, I take it how it comes and do it on my own time.

[Plus]: I think I actually just sit around thinking about a lot of stuff too much to actually have time to do it.

 

[Spamtar]

I plan. In fact I plan too much. Think just need to plan on planning and set forth a plan triage thereof and plan to decide on one of those plan and plan to chary out said decided plan. Have tried then the run into a head on collision at some intersection into a brand new, freash off the lot red sports plan.

 

[Snuggletron]

I'm a deadbeat without deadlines, but with deadlines I'm just late.

 

[Tamske]

I think this sums me up too. When it comes to my writing, just leave me to it, deadlines would lessen the quality of it, however for work and study I need deadlines otherwise I will just ignore it.

I need the rush of last minute agony that comes with meeting a deadline as I work very well under pressure.

I would like deadlines for my writing, too. If I set a deadline myself, it doesn't work. However, when my husband needs to take a plane and wants to read my story on it, the story is ready and printed by the time he wants to leave the house...

 

[kelric]

Ps generally procrastinate, and prefer open-ended lives without strict scheduling. We all know this.

I'm curious if any other Ps find that the quality of their work is lowered when they are forced to plan and outline everything.

I absolutely find that my quality of work declines when I'm forced into pre-planning and outlining everything. For two reasons:

1. It's inefficient. Sure, there are *some* tasks for which a general, vague list is sort of useful. These projects comprise about 5% of what I'm asked to do. The rest of the time, it's a waste of time... and then maintaining and re-editing the "plan" as I do the real work and find out (inevitably) that the "plan" is wrong is worse. At work, when I say that I have ideas on how to get started, but that the task ahead of us is too vague and unknown for definitive "plans" until we get most of the way through it, I get told to "estimate a plan first - even if it's unreliable or wrong, we need a plan so that we can gauge our progress". This absolutely infuriates me. Bad data *is worse* than no data!

2. It's an extremely demoralizing way for me to live. I just hate it. I get angry, surly, and turn into Captain Nitpick if forced to adhere to that sort of operation for any length of time. I really, really need to be able to just go with the flow -- not that I won't compromise, but if *I* am doing something, I need to be free to do it *my* way (unless I can be convinced there's a better way... but "you should write a plan first" won't convince me). Wrapped into this is anger when I (inevitably) get told that spending more time planning would help me get things done faster (doubly wrong).

I don't particularly consider myself a procrastinator, though... not for things that count. If it *needs* to get done, I won't often put off starting - I want it *done*, to give myself freedom to float on to whatever comes next. I do *not* work well with deadlines (yet strangely enough, people are always surprised at how quickly I get things done). For unimportant stuff (yardwork, house cleaning, etc.) - I'm not so much a procrastinator as a "I don't really care if it's not done yet" type . Others would consider that procrastination, I guess.