Plans are like Dragons (or knowing when to plan)

Plans are like dragons. Seriously. Dangerous. Tricksy. Filled with the ability to derail you, destroy you or in some very rare cases fill your life with some unexpected but hard earned riches. Don't believe me? Think about it.

What does a good plan do? It challenges you. It allows you to get from point A to point B. Sometimes, it's filled with all these dangerous moments. Moments where you can get completely off topic and never get back. Plans are dangerous. People who plan are a little scary. A little bit like dragons. Either they are prickly, terrifying or sitting on a large amount of treasure they are trying to hoard.

I have since learned that your shocking ability to plan makes you part dragon.  We can now be friends. 

Recently I had a chat with a really good friend of mine. We were both having a particularly tough few months. I tend to be a bit off in January/February. I think it's the lack of natural light. Which can be problematic when you work in an office and awful when you are in a particularly grey season-- like winter in London. We are both planners. We both are very driven and goal orientated. Post College/Uni I wonder sometimes if that's really a good thing? Because you hit a point in life where you kind of think- what I am I pushing towards next? Don't I want to savour what I'm doing now?

Anyway, that was massively off topic. So, back to the conversation. I mentioned how down I was about my progress editing my current project. How impossible everything seemed at the moment. How I needed a new plan. A way to drag myself out of this state.

Her response was simple: "Don't plan when your depressed. You'll make a crappy plan. Set your goals too high and then feel bad when it all doesn't work out. Wait until March or the first sunny day and then plan. Wait until you're seeing things in a more possible light."

Honestly, I've never thought about it that way. I've never thought there was a good time to plan or not to plan. I've always just thought, right I'll do X Y Z, draw up a spread sheet and get started. This has had varying degrees of success. Sometimes I've had amazing success and other times I've looked across a sea of empty boxes filled with no progress and wanted to sob.

Is answer as simple as knowing when to plan? I'd like to think that's the case. That you wait until you are looking at a plan that reminds you a dragon hoarding his gold-- waiting for a wily person to come and make a move on it. Those are the days when a plan seems madcap, daring and a little bit hopeful. They are the days you feel pretty alive. Then there are the other days. The days when you can't seem to see anything but the mammoth flapping of a scaly wing. As my friend so rightly suggested, don't plan on those days.

What do you think? Is there a right or wrong day to make a plan?