Everything is planned. Your schedule is packed. You know what you’ll achieve tomorrow.

Tomorrow arrives.

A customer calls, asking for an offer.

Your mother mails you, asking for a small favor.

Both are urgent, you attend to both of them.

Your plan is delayed. No problem, you’ll add it at the end of the day.

With your first successes handled you tackle the first task on your plan.

You finish it, you need to print it. Who forgot to refill the paper? Where’s paper?

Unexpected?

It’s a formula for over planning.

It’s a pleasant name for having to attend to urgent problems which seem to pop up from nowhere.

By definition unexpected happens when it’s not expected. But it seems to happen much more often when there is no time for it when there is no space for it.

While you can’t plan for the unexpected you still can make sure that it doesn’t chase you from one-time crisis to the other.

A plan with space for the unexpected does allow you to pull planned tasks ahead. It doesn’t delay you if the unexpected happens.