Are you a planner or a freewheeler?

I like some regular things through the week to anchor everything else around. Music club, art group and lunchtime recitals. One of my main joys is taking day trips by coach or just a whole day out by other means. My other engagements are flexible so I can cancel if something important comes up.

I think it’s a good idea to have some fixed points in the week, I wouldn’t like every day to be a blank.

After a working life that had very strict time restraints I now do not like to have any plans at all. I find it quite stressful if there are appointments or arrangements on the calendar.

My neighbour is the opposite and feels the need to have something specific to do every day.

Theexwife

After a working life that had very strict time restraints I now do not like to have any plans at all. I find it quite stressful if there are appointments or arrangements on the calendar.

My neighbour is the opposite and feels the need to have something specific to do every day.

Theexwife - snap!

I think I am a mix. I love to be busy with lots in my diary but I love to have the odd day with nothing in it.

I'm also a mix. I like structure, but also the flexibility to be spontaneous.

When travelling I really do like to have everything planned. We are planning a trip to Spain in September, but going with friends. I admit I am struggling to stay a bit more loose with planning; I would normally have all hotels and train tickets bought already!

I’m def a bit of both with an emphasis on spontaneity.

Theexwife, I'm the same. Working life was always strictly organised, busy and stressful at times. I'm finding over the last few years that if I have a definite appointment in my diary, even an enjoyable day out, I get a bit stressed in the build-up to it. I'm very much a "let's see what I feel like doing on the day" type of person now...

We do have regular childcare arrangements every week, but those are at our own home so I feel more relaxed about those.

I love empty days. Waking up and knowing the day is for me to do just what I want with no time restraints.
I sit with my morning cup of tea and decide what I will do next.
Unfortunately my plans don't seem to include housework so I have to, reluctantly, fit it in usually on a wet day.

I'm still working but if I wasn't I'd be more in the "what shall I do today" camp. So basically a freewheeler.

I am a freewheeler when possible, because I don't like being told what to do at any time of day or night. I have been anti-authority my whole life, even if the authority is a clock or a calendar - dislike them both. My best friend is exactly the opposite. She plans out five years at a time !

I m not keen on spontaneity I like to have things planned and know what I m doing when I wake up I get completely fazed if I have a empty day and flap around doing nothing and getting nowhere
So no I m not a freelancer I like structure or else I just waste the day

I'm a freewheeler, excepting when I have to pack for an away trip, then I have a notebook and pen by my bedside and make a list in the run up to the trip, to pack from.

I have only one firm commitment a week, a one hour exercise class, and on that day I decline all other invites, declaring "It's my Pilates day" 😁

I have more freewheeling days these days, and I love it.

I have so many things I want to do hobbies, socialising etc (and a pile of stuff I have to do) and it seems each time I cross something off my diary another two things get added on!

I’m not complaining but I remember one friend asking if I’d be bored on retirement and my retort was I’ve never been bored in my life, shan’t be starting now!

It’s true what they say, if you want something done, ask a busy person! My plans for the day can change in an instant if they have to, it simply means a reschedule rather than cancellation.

Planners: is it a case of not liking an empty day or fitting as much in as possible?

I tink I come slap in the middle. part planned part free wheeling. I would, however always be doing something. I am not someone who can sit down and relax doing nothing (unless I am ill or very tired). Fidgety Phil who can;t sit still - that's me.

Like M0nica, I am always doing something. I have a few regular commitments, but am happy taking free days as they come, and I'm never bored.

I do resent being messed about though - if something is in the diary and there is a last-minute cancellation I really don't like it, as the odds are that I have had to move things or turn things down in order to out it there in the first place. I've found that since Covid many people are willing to cry off things without a backward glance, and it drives me mad.

My parents used to say you have plenty of time to rest sleep etc when you are gone. I was quite rebellious but I listened to them as I have always worked hard.
Since retirement and giving up a lot of time helping with GC. I am always busy doing something never bored but on my terms not someone else’s.
If there is a holiday or weekend etc to prepare for I just do it. I don’t waste time I just get on with what’s got to be done but now time tables do irritate me. They literally ruled our life when running our business I have no patience for them now not at all.

When I said I was always doing something I didn’t necessarily mean housework or other chores. I meant not just sitting there with nothing to do. I could be knitting, reading, surfing the net, for instance.

A mixture of both. I make lists, but hate to have a quiet week disrupted. Then again I will happily leave what I am doing if someone unexpected calls or I’m ask out for a coffee etc.
mercurial I think

I'm definitely a planner but daily find myself leaning more and more towards being a freewhweeler. I do so love my lunches with different people but lately a joy comes over me when I have a couple of free days in my diary. I think this is really my need/desire to get stuck in in the garden but so often recently the weather has quashed that plan. I could resort to the domestic arts but....hey....steady. I'm not that desperate. I find it essential to run a diary in order to accommodate others availability as well as having to advance book eateries, travel etc. I guess a healthy balance is right for me but I do feel things are changing.

I have a fullish diary of exhibitions and events going into the future but I always keep days where I have absolutely nothing to do.. those are days for resting and dreaming

I'm a mixture. I like to know that travel arrangements etc for holidays are planned well before time, but am loose on activities while there. In other times I enjoy having nothing planned so I can be spontaneous. Especially when I had to stick to quite rigid timetables in earlier life I never forgot the essence of W H Davies' poem 'Leisure'. I once had an experience with a friend who found it impossible to just 'be' at any time. We'd climbed up a hill to a magnificent view. I wanted to stop, soak up the view and just 'be' for a while, he had achieved the aim of climbing the hill and after a cursory glance around wanted to immediately descend. We compromised and enjoyed the view, the quiet and freshest air ever for a short time

Reading through its clear that many of us like to have the option of doing or just being. I love to sit and daydream or watch the world go by, it's a treat after a busy lifetime isn't it. But can it go too far? We (OH and I) seem to have cut ties, given up commitments, do whatever makes life easy so that we can be freewheelers and now, probably triggered by lockdown, we've lost the knack of committing to anything. I remember the days as a young working mum when I didn't have time to think let alone sit and stare. Couldn't wait to retire. If only I knew then...