Last week was my scheduled week for quarterly planning. And coincidentally, my planners for 2025 came in the post on Monday (yay!).

But, I know the next four to eight weeks are going to be chaotic, with house finishing noise. And the different tastes in music and radio stations the trades bring with them.

So I’m wondered, how can I plan when I know there will be chaos?

So I started with an internet search.

1. In the midst of chaos, there’s opportunity.

And apparently, according to Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, conflict creates opportunity. If you can keep a calm head and a clear mind, you;re more likely to “win” than if you don’t.

I know from past experience, it’s hard to keep a calm head and a clear mind when you’re not in control of the music. I don’t ever want to go through another trade person’s break up…

However, Diana Raab, suggests you can use chaos as a kind of base level motivation, but telling yourself your circumstances suck, but they will get better.

Though she also suggests bolstering yourself against the “bad” with activities like “meditation, exercise, communing with nature, reading, and the creative arts” along with mantras you can mutter under your breath.

A while back, when I was under a daily lunchime deadline, I used to tell myself “time expands to meet my needs,” and it did.

But…

Excellent suggestions as they are, they won’t really help me in the moment.

2. Counselling from the Bible

It’s not usually my thing.

But.

Sometimes it helps to talk to someone.

Katy once told me that praying is like talking to god, and meditating is listening.

I’m definitely listening.

But Toseland’s version of praying is typing three pages and then deleting them. It’s a prayer released into the aether.

Some call it Morning Pages

I haven’t written morning pages for a while, so it might be a good time to restart.

3. Reduce the scope and stick to the plan

James Clear is somewhat more helpful. His basic idea is that the schedule is the most important thing, so when you can’t do what you’d planned, then just do a smaller version.

His example, publish a blog post with the message “this post is coming.” (oops)

And this requires some contingency planning – when chaos overtakes me, I’ll do this instead.

And knowing things are going to get a bit chaotic, perhaps the best thing to do, is focus on the training my way into the habits I hope will keep me working next year.

When the chaos is over.

4. Priorities

Another way to think about living in chaos, is knowing what your priorities are.

Kristine Kathryn Rusch explains that uncertainty and stress can cause brain fog. She calls it Schrödinger’s Future. If you knew what future you were looking at, you could plan, so you have to plan non-traditionally.

Her example is her husband signing up for a marathon a month on the assumption some or all of them will be cancelled, but there’s still a reason to get up and do the exercise.

According to Rusch, you can also deal with chaos, by setting priorities, because that gives you a structural bedrock.

And if you exclude family (#1), health (#2), and leisure (#4), and just think about writing and my publishing, then the first priority must be writing.

5. Dedicate your suffering for the benefit of others

It has to be said, that there are a lot of people living in far worse chaos than I find myself in.

After all, I still have a roof over my head, easy access to food, water and heath care.

There are people who have none of that.

My suffering is fleeting and insignificant by comparison. And about all it’s good for, is dedicating it for the benefit of those who need it.

To make it mean something more than my pettiness.

My plan

I’ve come up with a weird nebulous kind of chaos plan.

First work priority is the writing.

My writing habit has not been a habit for some time, and I’d like to get back into the habit of daily writing. So, if I can’t write a lot, then I’ll try for just fifteen minutes.

And hopefully if I can write that fifteen minutes every day, I can write more when the chaos receds in the new year.

Then the business.

Hopefully finish updating the websites – a few posts at a time.

And publish a book the same way – a bit at a time. And if there are “good’ days, then I can do more.

Keep meditating, eat well, exercise more, drink more water.

Talk to god/the universe, and see who’s listening. Write the morning pages.

And of course, most importantly of all, stay married, and keep Clever Girl happy.

Photo of an anxious egg by Олег Мороз on Unsplash

You can find my monthly reports and other planning related information on the Life Worth Living page.

Planning a Life Worth Living

Let’s face it, life is short. If you don’t stop to think about how you’re going to make it count, at the end of the day, it won’t.

Planning a Life Worth Living applies business techniques to personal concerns. Using these techniques, you’ll get to the end of the year satisfied with what you’ve achieved.

Take a look at how I do my planning.

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