Creative Reaction

Via 43Folders, I came across this fascinating post on project planning and as it promises, it will change your life.

The article discusses what researchers call “Hofstadter’s Law”, which can be summed up this way: “we know everything always takes longer than expected; we just seem to forget, again and again”.

Our finite minds cannot plan for unforeseen problems because they can’t foresee them.

Which explains why even the “list-makers among us get up each day and make to-do lists that by the same evening will seem laughable”. We are simply setting ourselves up for disappointment.

The two solutions are equally counter-intuitive;

1. Plan in the broadest terms possible, or
2. Simply do things without planning

Quoting the author, “sometimes, the secret to getting things done is just to do them.”

Read the post; bookmark it; print it out; e-mail it to everyone you care about -  it’s that important.