I like plans and I like schedules. I have short-term, medium-term, and long-term plans for my family, my home, and especially, my career: Fiction writing. The schedules make me feel safe, they help me set goals and feel like I’m working towards something, but ultimately, they’re an illusion.
Let’s take my family: I planned to have my son reading before he went to kindergarten, and I planned to keep my daughter away from Barbie and similar fashion dolls. They both had other ideas. My son is very smart, but he has a peculiar independence about when and how he will learn things. The best I could do was teach him to love reading before kindergarten, which, I figure, is more important. As for my daughter, she loves pretty things. As long as she realizes that she is one of those pretty things, who am I to stand in her way?
In summary: Schedules can be illusory because they often depend upon other people, and we can only control ourselves.
Moving on to the house: When I moved in 7 years ago, I made a schedule of home improvements. I also planned to upgrade after 10-15 years. But emergencies happen, and things cost more than I think they will. I hated the kitchen floor we had when we moved in, and I kept saving to have it replaced, but every time I got close to having enough money, I’d need it for something else. I now call the emergency fund the “kitchen floor fund.” (Even though I did, finally, get together the money for the kitchen floor.) And as far as moving goes…well, if we stay here, we’ll finish paying for the house the summer before our oldest starts college. Can you think of a better college savings plan?
In summary: Schedules are illusory because stuff happens.
Then there’s my career, and boy, is it illusory to believe I have much control over it! For one thing, writing is an art, a creative endeavor, and as such, it is inherently difficult to quantify or predict. I have a long-term goal to write a new book, start to finish, every year. Looking forward, I see myself with 10 books in 10 years…a nice catalog! But last year, I spent six months on a project that ultimately failed, and this year, I’m revising the Cassie Scot series I’ve already spent 2 years on, working through a series of changes (improvements, I hope).
You could argue that I should force myself to stick more closely to the schedule, but actually, I finish projects early as often as I delay them. I recently told my publisher that book 3 in the Cassie Scot series would be done by May. Then I got feedback suggesting I’d done a better job than my inner artist (who has self-esteem problems) thought, and I’ve decided not to mess with it too much. Don’t tell her I said so, but she may get the manuscript as early as next week!
In summary: Schedules are illusory because by nature, creativity resists schedules.
So, what is the value of a schedule? I believe I said that in the first paragraph — they make me feel safe, they help me set goals, and they make me feel like I’m working towards something. I think the mistake most people make in scheduling (including myself, if I’m being honest), is to set their watches by them.