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  "description": "A neat little trick to help you work with the mind, instead of it bringing you down 📆",
  "path": "/in-praise-of-faux-planning/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-03-23T07:00:53.000Z",
  "site": "https://www.gilespcroft.com",
  "tags": [
    "getting stuff off your mind",
    "all the time",
    "Trello",
    "make matters worse",
    "work with the mind",
    "Being realGetting schooled by life. Again. To see why ‘feeling bad’ is such a gift. 💝The Daily RemindersGiles P Croft"
  ],
  "textContent": "The other day I wrote about how ‘getting stuff off your mind’ is a nice little guiding light when it comes to doing something like choosing a way to tackle life’s difficulties.\n\nThe piece was written from the perspective of getting help from a professional, but it occurred to me after writing it, that this ‘nice little guiding light’ applies to _everything_.\n\n(That’s the power of principles: they apply to everything, all the time.)\n\n## Scheduling stuff\n\nSo, for instance, when it comes to writing the Daily Reminders, I’ll have a long list of things I _could_ write about. (I keep a Trello board on the go that I drop ideas into, as they occur to me.)\n\nAnd I’ve noticed something about this.\n\nIf I _don’t_ plan, or schedule what I’m going to write in advance—even if it’s just one or two—the mind really objects to that. It gives me grief. Not so much the in-your-face, worrying-about-it kind of mind grief, but more that low-level, heavy sort of _Oh-and-there’s-also-this-I-haven’t-attended-to-yet_ ‘open loop’ grief that just seems to lower the mood, generally.\n\nAnd it’s important to note that I don’t have a choice in the way the mind responds to this situation. I can’t muscle my way into thinking (or feeling) differently, or reason with the mind; try and get it to see logic and simmer down (that has a tendency to make matters worse.)\n\nNo, what I have to do is work with the mind and take some action.\n\nThe good news is, it’s a really simple action. I literally sit down for five minutes with Trello, have a scan through the list of ideas and move them from one column (‘Ideas’) into another (‘Write next’), in the order I’d like to write them in.\n\nThat’s it. Nothing more complicated. Once I’ve done that, an invisible weight comes off my shoulders and my day seems a lot easier; a lot lighter.\n\nBut the bit that always makes me laugh is the fact that I often _don’t_ end up writing about those things I’ve scheduled!!\n\n😂\n\n## The power of thought\n\nAgain, we’re back to how-the-mind-works and how best to beat it at its machinations.\n\nBecause if the entirety of our experience boils down to:\n\n  * being in the flow of life, vs.\n  * being in the flow of life, while distracted from it by mind-activity\n\n\n\n…then this little act of what we’ll call ‘faux-planning’ simply gives the mind permission to shut up for a bit, so I can get on with the business of living.\n\nAnd then write about whatever the hell I want to write about, when the time comes.\n\n😁\n\nIt **_all_** comes down to getting stuff off your mind.\n\nSo my question to you, today, here at the beginning of the week, is this:\n\n📆\n\nWhat are you going to get off your mind, by taking action on it?\n\n🚀\n\nGiles\n\nSIGN UP FOR THE DAILY REMINDERS newsletter\n\nWant to start __every__ day with helpful, insightful content like this? The Daily Reminder is a quick, lighthearted email that arrives in your inbox every morning, to help keep you grounded in reality, so that you get to __‘Think less, and live more.’__\n\n __“They feel like a moment of stillness in a world of madness.” ~__ Neil, UK\n\n __“One of those small things with big impact. Honestly, just sign up!”__ ~ Paula, UK\n\nGET YOURS NOW\n\n### Related\n\nBeing realGetting schooled by life. Again. To see why ‘feeling bad’ is such a gift. 💝The Daily RemindersGiles P Croft\n\nIn which I take planning too far… and suffer the consequences.",
  "title": "In praise of (faux) planning",
  "updatedAt": "2026-04-07T23:26:25.718Z"
}