You’re Not Out of Time—You’re Playing Without a Game Plan
Based on the GardenShrink video on long-term planning and time awareness.
Many people feel overwhelmed, busy, and convinced they don’t have enough time. But what if the problem isn’t time itself? In this article, we’ll explore the psychology of time awareness, the planning fallacy, attention, and practical ways to reclaim hours that may already be hiding in plain sight.
This post explores how long-term planning and weekly time management work together. Most people either plan too broadly or live day-to-day without direction. Real change requires both a clear long-term “franchise plan” and a weekly game plan that reflects how life is actually lived.
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You spend more time planning your fantasy team…
than your actual life.
Research. Rankings. Mock drafts.
But with the things that matter most, we tend to be vague.
We tend to “wing it.”
And then we’re surprised
by the results.
But here’s the deeper problem—
It’s not just that we don’t plan.
It’s that we don’t understand
how time management and planning actually work together.
The NFL Got This Right (Long Before We Did)
In the NFL, Championships aren’t won on game day.
They’re built months—sometimes years—before that.
Scouting.
Drafting.
Development.
No team shows up in February, for the
Big Game and says:
“Let’s figure this out now.”
And yet…
That’s exactly how many of us approach our lives. I mean, I get it. We’re over-extended and under-staffed. Or it certainly feels like it.
So what does football, of all things, and gardening have to teach us about planning? A lot. Not planning for planning’s sake. Planning so we reap better harvests in life, so we increase our effectiveness, and avoid unnecessary pain, discouragement, and failure.
Fall football and Gardening start in April.
That sounds backwards.
Most people think football season begins in September.
But inside the NFL, preparation for the season begins long before the first kickoff.
By the time the NFL Draft arrives in April, teams have already spent months evaluating players.
Scouting reports.
Film study.
Medical evaluations.
Interviews.
Strategic discussions.
The draft may look like a three-day television event.
But in reality, it represents months—sometimes years—of preparation.
And oddly enough…
Gardening works the same way.
The tomatoes you enjoy in August often begin with selections made
from those colorful winter catalogs in February, and then planted in April or May (in New England).
Your Fall Harvest Does Too
If you want fresh salsa during football season, you can’t start thinking about it in September.
Tomatoes take 70–90 days to mature.
Peppers need warm soil and a long growing season.
Onions are often planted weeks before tomatoes.
And pumpkins or butternut squash—the vegetables that show up on Thanksgiving tables—often need four or five months to reach maturity.
In other words:
The harvest you enjoy in the fall is usually determined by the planning you do in the spring.
Miss the planting window, and there’s no catching up.
No amount of enthusiasm in August can fix a seed that was never planted in May.
Success Requires Planning
For a team to be successful, especially long-term it requires success on multiple, interdependent levels. First, there is the owner and the general manager (GM). They set the vision, the budget, and the long-term plan. They hire the staff to make it happen. And acquire the talent to execute the plan. This involves long-term planning.
It incorporates values and priorities.
Win now?
Or …Build now, and develop long-term success.
The head coach manages the team, develops a plan for the season, and a weekly plan that changes for each opponent. This is more of the short term planning.
Both roles are critical for success.
Our vision and long-term goals tell us where we’re going.
Our short-term goals provide the structure to make them happen.
Some of us are great at casting a vision.
Some of us are great managers.
Some, great team players.
But in life, we need to be mindful and attentive to all three, to truly be successful. Otherwise, we tend to drift … and instead of navigating to port, we end up at sea, in the middle of the Gulf Stream.
The Planning Fallacy: Why People Avoid Planning Ahead
Psychologists have a name for why people often skip planning.
It’s called the planning fallacy.
Research by Nobel Prize–winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman and colleague Amos Tversky showed that people consistently underestimate:
• how long things will take
• how much effort they require
• and how many obstacles will appear
Instead of imagining the realistic process, we imagine the best-case scenario.
In the garden, that sounds like:
“I’ll plant tomatoes sometime this spring.”
But experienced gardeners know better.
Timing matters.
Soil temperature matters.
Spacing matters.
Sunlight matters.
Growth follows seasons.
Miss the season…
and the harvest disappears.
For more on the psychology behind this bias, see this overview of the planning fallacy:
https://www.behavioraleconomics.com/resources/mini-encyclopedia-of-be/planning-fallacy/
Ancient Wisdom About Planning and Preparation
Long before psychologists studied planning, wisdom literature had already noticed the same pattern.
Benjamin Franklin famously wrote:
“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”
And thousands of years earlier, the writer of Ecclesiastes observed something every gardener understands:
“To everything there is a season…
a time to plant, and a time to harvest.”
Growth has timing.
Effort matters.
But timing matters just as much.
The Weekly Game Plan Worksheet
I’ve developed some helpful worksheets to get us started with the process. They are available in the Free Resources section on the blog page.
The first, The Weekly Game Plan Worksheet helps you clarify where you are going and how to get there. This is the macro level.
The Gardenshrink Time Tracking Worksheet is designed to help you get in the weeds, so to speak, and to really examine how you are spending your time on a micro level. We often feel we hard-pressed for time, but don’t often see how much of it is spent mindlessly.
These resources are designed to just help us begin.
It’s ok to go slow.
It’s ok, to drift.
Just return to your plan … or fire your head coach (kidding).
Farmer Dave Truth
You can plant the best garden in the county…
But if you don’t tend it this week—
weeds don’t care about your long-term vision.
Dr. Dave Insight
Most people don’t fail because they’re lazy.
They fail because they’re disconnected—
from what they intend to build…
and how they’re actually living.
The goal isn’t control.
It’s alignment.
Between your direction…
and your daily reality.
Garden Takeaway
Before planting season…
gardeners don’t just dream about tomatoes.
They decide:
what they’re growing
where it goes
what gets priority
And then they show up and tend it.
Week after week.
Planning is planting.
Your weekly game plan is tending.
You need both, to get a harvest.
Optional Free Resource
Download your Personal Franchise Plan and Weekly Game Plan worksheet to put this into practice.
FAQ: What Research Says About Planning
Why does planning improve success rates?
Research on implementation intentions shows that people are far more likely to follow through when they specify when, where, and how they will act.
Psychologist Peter Gollwitzer demonstrated that forming “if–then” plans dramatically increases the likelihood of behavior.
Instead of saying:
“I should exercise more.”
A plan might be:
“If it is Monday, Wednesday, or Friday at 7 AM, I will walk for 20 minutes.”
Planning transforms vague intentions into specific behavioral cues.
Why do people rely on motivation instead of planning?
Motivation feels exciting.
Planning feels ordinary.
But motivation fluctuates dramatically depending on:
• sleep
• stress
• mood
• environment
• competing demands
Planning compensates for these fluctuations by designing behavior ahead of time.
Behavioral scientist BJ Fogg emphasizes that successful habits rely more on environmental design than motivation alone.
Gardeners intuitively understand this.
You don’t rely on motivation to grow tomatoes.
You rely on planting season.
What exactly is the planning fallacy?
The planning fallacy refers to our tendency to underestimate how long things will take.
Even experienced professionals make this mistake.
Research shows people typically predict project timelines based on best-case scenarios rather than realistic ones.
Planning forces us to consider:
• preparation
• sequencing
• obstacles
In gardening terms:
onions → peppers → tomatoes → harvest.
Growth unfolds in sequence.
Does planning actually change outcomes?
Yes.
Research on goal pursuit consistently shows that planning increases follow-through by:
• clarifying priorities
• structuring effort
• reducing decision fatigue
• anticipating obstacles
Planning doesn’t remove effort.
It simply places effort in the right place at the right time.
What’s the simplest way to start planning?
Start small.
Many people benefit from a simple weekly review:
• look back at the past week
• identify priorities for the coming week
• choose one or two meaningful actions
In gardening terms, it’s the difference between wandering into the garden with no plan…
…and stepping outside knowing exactly what needs tending today.