A good plan is preparation—or at least, preliminary work—for dealing with reality.
Sometimes, you may want to avoid planning, and take a more spontaneous stance to your work. For example, if you find yourself inspired or in the zone, you may want to clear your calendar of your other obligations—or prevent those events from accumulating in the first place.
That’s all well and good, but reality has its own ways of catching up eventually one way or another.
Reality will give you what you want, provided that you decide what you are willing to give up. One sign you’re doing it right is you’re saying no to things and it hurts in some way. Maybe you’re passing up on opportunities in order to focus on making one project as good as it can be, or scaling back on a hobby that brings you joy.
It can feel disappointing. If it’s any consolation, even for the biggest companies and teams, infinite is an illusion. You can want it all, so long as you understand you probably won’t be able to get it. In order to get something, you’ll need to practice restraint.