“It’s not the plan,” former President Dwight D. Eisenhower is supposed to have said, “it’s the planning.” I guess that means that the details of a certain plan matter a lot less than simply having one in the first place. Ike must have known what he was talking about, of course — who am I to gainsay the architect of the Allied victory in World War II?

The problem, for me, is that I have lots of plans. I painstakingly work out what I’m going to do on free weekday mornings. I have highly specific charts of errands, work projects, phases to complete in writing assignments, and even how to sort laundry I need to take to the cleaners and stuff I can just throw in on cold, heavy-duty, max spin.