A planning system should help you plan the future by the period.
To be fully present means your attention is not in the past or the future.
It’s in the now.
But the future can distract you from the now.
Unless you plan for it in a healthy way.
Until you do that, the future will rear it’s ugly head. Or it’s siren song.
Planning by the period just means planning into the future based on the natural cycles, or periods, of life.
Plan out your next day, or week, or month, or year.
When you do this, it allows your mind to relax, because it knows the way forward. At least until you plan again.
Natural cycles give your mind a structure to latch onto. They allow it to look forward as life comes full circle.
By building habits of planning each day, each week, each month, each year, your mind begins to trust those habits.
When it trusts that you’ll do that, you become free to execute your plan, or adapt it as necessary.
Knowing that the next period will come, and with it another plan.
Plans don’t need to be super detailed flow charts or large hierarchical lists.
They need to go far enough that your mind can rest easy in the moment. That it can allow you to be present trusting that the future is taken care of.
And that means you planning system isn’t just about taking the time to periodically plan out the future.
It must also remind you. Of the appointment at the doctor, or the habit you’re working to build, or deadline for your driver license renewal.
Planning by the period lets you set up those reminders so that you can fully engage with the task at hand.
As you plan by the period, it’s important to start with shorter time frames and build up, rather than the opposite.
If you’ve never tried to plan out your day or your life, start with your day. Or if you’ve fallen off the wagon, and have just been reacting without forethought, go back to just planning the day. Once you’ve done that for a few days, plan out the next week. As you build your ability to plan into the future it becomes reasonable to look at longer time periods: months, or even years.
But until you have the habit at one time horizon (e.g. days) there isn’t much to gain from jumping to the next (e.g. weeks).