Planning Reduces Stress

My biggest source of stress comes from when reality doesn’t match my expectations. In a way, most stress can be boiled down to this mismatch.

For instance, if I forget to cancel a subscription, I expected not to spend money on it, but the reality is that I did. If I’m struggling with a challenging task at work, I expected it to be easier and quicker. If someone close to me falls ill, this goes against my expectation that my loved ones would always stay healthy.

Default Expectations

Not planning something often means I have default expectations, which are usually overly optimistic. For example, if I have a task to complete, I tend to underestimate how long it will take and overestimate how much time I have. Sometimes, there are two or three tasks I want to accomplish on a given day. More often than not, by the evening, I feel stressed out if I’ve only managed to complete one.

Taking just five minutes to estimate and plan helps. It doesn’t give me more time to finish the tasks, but it sets realistic expectations—like acknowledging that there’s no way to do all three tasks today. This makes me feel more content in the evening, and sometimes I even cancel some tasks completely, saving time and resources.

Doing this exercise daily has significantly reduced my stress levels and helps me plan my sleep schedule. It also applies to my leisure and relaxation time.