How to bend without breaking your plans
Newsletter #25
TL;DR: Plans will always go off course. This week’s tool, ‘Stretch or No Stretch?’ helps you spot which parts of your plan can flex and which can’t, so you can bend it, without breaking it.
Another Monday, another later-than-planned newsletter.
Just before the school summer holidays here in the UK, my business buddy Caitlin asked if I planned to keep my newsletter going through the break. “Yes,” I said, “I had a plan.” What a foolish thing to say out loud! But it was too late and I didn’t stop there.
I shared how I planned to treat the seven weeks ahead as a mini project: plotting out the topics in advance, writing ahead of myself, and leaving room for the inevitable ebbs and flows.
And what is it they say about best-laid plans?
In all honesty I couldn’t quite remember, so off I went to check and promptly fell into a small but lovely detour into Robert Burns’ poem, ‘To a Mouse’1. Burns wrote it after accidentally destroying a mouse’s winter nest while ploughing a field:
“The best-laid schemes of mice and men
Go oft awry,
And leave us nothing but grief and pain,
For promised joy!”
And so yes dear reader - my plans really have gone awry this summer already! And so I’m here, yet again, on a Monday, this time a Monday afternoon, typing up my newsletter!
So who has been the Robert Burns ploughing through my plans you might ask? Even if you’re not asking - I’m telling!
Well, there’s been bugs. A sickness bug that kept me in bed for most of three days - I’m mainly over it but not over still feeling sorry for myself. And a software server bug which turned up urgently and of course unannounced and therefore unplanned which meant a server move eating into time meant for other things.
And perhaps the biggest disruption: someone who has worked with me for many years, first full-time, then as a freelancer, has had to take time away from work. I’m mostly just hoping they’ll be ok, and selfishly also that they’ll be able to come back at some point. And of course there’s the knock-on effect on several project plans that still need managing as well as the time spent finding someone to help do that.
All of which has me wondering, not how to avoid plans going off-course (they always will) but how to handle them when they do. How to add in flexibility but not lose momentum. How to let plans bend but not break.
Which brings us to this week’s question:
Why this question?
Because shit happens - and it always will.
It’s how we deal with the impact of that, that really matters. How we can find the give in the plan so we can meet change it without it snapping.
This week’s question is partly inspired by words I read in Nora Bateson’s book ‘Combining’2, where she talks about holding purpose lightly. If you’re unfamiliar with her work, it’s hard to sum it up without doing it a disservice, but if I had to, I’d say it’s about complexity and the study of systems.
And if you feel like this week’s question is perhaps more poetic than practical, here’s a tool to help make it more tangible.
Try this tool this week: Stretch or No Stretch?
When plans wobble, it’s easy to grip harder or let go completely. But maybe there’s another way, one where we notice which parts of the plan can flex without harming and which parts need to stay rooted to keep the whole thing together.
Here’s how it works. Look at your plan, whether it’s a project, a routine or this week’s to-do list and sort each item into one of two lists:
Stretch – These are the parts that can shape shift and swap without breaking the whole.
No Stretch – These are the anchors. If these move, the plan loses its identity and shape (also . . . heads up sometimes a plan has to have a change of identity!)
Try not to think in terms of only tasks and timelines. Ask:
If we stretch this, who will it impact?
How will it feel for the person carrying it?
Will stretching this strengthen us or strain us?
Some “no stretch” points might be obvious, a launch date, a safety standard, a promise to a client. Others might seem small to outsiders but matter deeply to you, like keeping a Monday morning check-in because it starts your week well. Those rituals belong on the “no stretch” list too.
And try to include those you’re collaborating with in this exercise. Not because you can’t make decisions alone, but because someone else might spot a flex point you’ve missed or guard a boundary you didn’t know you needed.
This week, I’ve used my own newsletter as the example:
Stretch: Length of the issue, depth of research, section order, whether I include a tool, visuals. And late to the party - time the issue gets sent. I’ve given myself a hard time for letting the time slip in the past few weeks and I think it would be easier for me if I let that stretch.
No Stretch: Send one thoughtful question every week, share something of value. Post on every Monday - this has stretched once before but I’d really rather it didn’t.
Let me know if you’ve needed to already hold your plans more lightly this summer too. And if not, go straight to buy a lottery ticket - there’s some good luck in the air for you.
Till Next Week,
P.S. And remember, even Robert Burns had to apologise to a mouse once, we’re all just doing our best.
Inspiration & Credits:
I hope giving some distance between sources and their links frees you from ending up in an unintended rabbit hole! If you’re interested though - click away!
Robert Burns, ‘To a Mouse’