Planning Fetish?

[Tigger]

We should start an ER spreadsheet thread.

One can never get enough Excel . A fragment of a recent market timing graph:

Oooh. Very sexy. I'm all for an "Excel Fetish" thread.

 

[mickeyd]

When I was gainfully employed I was planner all the way. I guess I got it from my time in the military when, often, time is limited and duties many. I carried this over to civilian j*bs and it served me very well for the decades of w*rk.

Now that I am retired, I avoid planning like the plague. I think I enjoy the excitement of not knowing what is next.

When DW and I were talking about our upcoming cruise thru the Panama Canal I just told her that I'd fund the trip if she would do all of the rest. She is still in a plan-plan-plan mode, so it's all planned, I guess.

Anyway, we fly out to San Diego at 10AM on Friday, that's all I need to know.

 

[Katsmeow]

Sounds like there are others like us out there. Meow- most of my planning is future or financial oriented. Don't worry much about "old stuff" like pictures or e-mails. Maybe I should.

Well, the emails take almost no time to maintain. Basically it just requires not deleting them. I don't need to go back to them often but sometimes I'm asked something or have to provide documentation of something and the email is where it is or that is the easy way to find it. Saves a lot of time.

On the pictures, I guess that is past oriented. I do enjoy looking at them. I have my wallpaper on my computer set to periodically switch to a random photo. We've ended up having a lot of discussions about past trips or events or people when someone comes in my study as a picture changes. The main thing I've done though is send them all off to be scanned in so I don't have to deal with paper.

 

[simple girl]

Love this thread...I admit...I am a planning addict! Just a bit OCD - in all the right ways.

 

[sheehs1]

Our friends think we are nuts but we both love this stuff. What do you guys think? Maybe too much? But can't imagine doing it otherwise.

Danmar...sounds like you are a "data" and a "detail" person. So am I to a certain extent..so I can understand. Still...you have way more data than I do!

 

[Walt34]

DW is the "spreadsheet keeper" on budgetary matters, and I'm glad she does it. She keeps Excel spreadsheets for that, for itineraries, for calories, for... well, just about everything.

Being a longtime sufferer of CRS disease (Can't Remember "Stuff") this way I can go look up what I gotta remember not to forget. Or something like that.

 

[DFA]

I LOVE EXCEL; I am in spreadsheet heaven everyday working my ER plan!!

 

[Danmar]

Danmar...sounds like you are a "data" and a "detail" person. So am I to a certain extent..so I can understand. Still...you have way more data than I do!

After working on my spreadsheets, I love doing our taxes on Turbotax.

 

[Danmar]

Well, the emails take almost no time to maintain. Basically it just requires not deleting them. I don't need to go back to them often but sometimes I'm asked something or have to provide documentation of something and the email is where it is or that is the easy way to find it. Saves a lot of time.

On the pictures, I guess that is past oriented. I do enjoy looking at them. I have my wallpaper on my computer set to periodically switch to a random photo. We've ended up having a lot of discussions about past trips or events or people when someone comes in my study as a picture changes. The main thing I've done though is send them all off to be scanned in so I don't have to deal with paper.

DW looks after our photo archives. We usually make albums by downloading to Kodak,etc. Leave these lying around and do enjoy looking at the various trips we have taken.

 

[Zero]

I had a boss at MegaCorp who was a runner. He ran at lunch and at precisely 11:15 each day he would call the Hawthorne airport and get the temperature, smog index, cloud ceiling, barometric pressure, etc. He would enter the data in an engineering notebook with date, time. He would then weigh his kit (running shoes, shorts, teeshirt and socks), enter that. He would check his BP, pulse, weigh himself, and make notes of his mental and physical well being and enter that. He had gadgets strapped to him everywhere for taking data along the way.

He would stand still waiting for precisely, PRECISELY, 12:00, and he'd flick that watch and off he went. Not jogging but at a full-speed miler's pace. Same course everyday, rain or shine. Along the run, he would not speak, nor look side to side.

At the end of the run, document everything you can imagine. If a fly had annoyed him while running, bingo, into the notes.

He did similar things with food consumption (precise times, precise portions, calories, etc).

He even had notes on the location of every one of his possession. "Watch = bedside table, black marble dish"

Never had children. I guess that would have interferred. And his wife had numerous boyfriends (not sure he kept statistics on that).

All in all, one of the happiest people I have ever known.

I think it truly is "whatever floats your boat".

 

[Meadbh]

Zero, was your boss a little autistic? Asperger's syndrome perhaps?

 

[Lsbcal]

...(snip)...
Never had children. I guess that would have interferred. And his wife had numerous boyfriends (not sure he kept statistics on that).

All in all, one of the happiest people I have ever known.

I think it truly is "whatever floats your boat".

It's interesting that your boss was very happy. Makes me feel better about my very modest obsessions -- like logging my run miles in a calendar. I'm happy too.

 

[Zero]

This boss seemed perfectly normal to me and seemed like a normal engineer. Which, in reality, is not that far from Aspergers but luckily not yet identified as a malady.

He was very routine oriented and one sign of his fetish was that we had two meetings per day that he attended and said not a word. He would arrive with a large journal (yearly planner 8.5x11 size) and carefully place it in front of himself, remove his twist ball point pen from his shirt pocket, draw a line under the last meetings notes, date it, list the meeting time, give it a title. He then spent the meeting taking copious notes, which he typed up afterwords and handed out to anyone interested.

When required to turn a page in his journal, he had the most deliberate actions which included using his middle finger to carefully catch the page top edge, then carefully lift the page and very deliberately use the other and to slowly turn the page and then smooth the pages with both hands.

His office had bookcases wall to wall and had journals from the first day he arrived.

He never seemed unhappy or ruffled. The numbers, organizing, note taking, etc., must have been a nice grounding for him.

At this moment, I don't know where my house keys are, I have no idea what I spent today, nor yesterday, the temperature at the airport doesn't interest me at all and no plans for tomorrow. I feel happy though.

 

[youbet]

This boss seemed perfectly normal to me and seemed like a normal engineer.

Sorry to here that Zero. It's a terrible burden to have to go through life with. I wish him the best but usually there's nothing that can be done for folks in that condition.

 

[Zero]

Maybe the image I've portrayed of my boss was harsh but calling him an abnormal engineer would be an untruth.

I can confirm that I never saw him wearing a pocket protector in person, only in old company photographs.

 

[Lsbcal]

Maybe the image I've portrayed of my boss was harsh but calling him an abnormal engineer would be an untruth.

I can confirm that I never saw him wearing a pocket protector in person, only in old company photographs.

Being serious for the moment, I've been an engineer all my working life and never met anyone quite like you described. Not even anyone close to this. This guy sounds like a very abnormal engineer.

 

[BTravlin]

Our friends think we are nuts but we both love this stuff. What do you guys think? Maybe too much? But can't imagine doing it otherwise.

Hey, if it works for you that is all that matters but are you really living your lives or recording them?

My wife used to be like that but I have managed to partially cure her over the years. She still breaks out in a sweat when I suggest impromptu things like hopping in the car and driving to Cincinnati for the weekend at the last minute.

 

[ls99]

DW claims I have fetishes. I do not plan them.

 

[haha]

And his wife had numerous boyfriends (not sure he kept statistics on that).

I can imagine that she needed them really seriously.

Ha

 

[Danmar]

Hey, if it works for you that is all that matters but are you really living your lives or recording them?

My wife used to be like that but I have managed to partially cure her over the years. She still breaks out in a sweat when I suggest impromptu things like hopping in the car and driving to Cincinnati for the weekend at the last minute.

I think it's mostly planning not recording. If you travel maybe 15-18 times a year you have to plan. Most of the recording is financial stuff I think I need. Some motivational recording of weight and workouts but nothing like that engineer.

 

[Nords]

Thanks for the replies. I was wondering if we were really that far off the norm? What others think isn't that important to us for something like this but I am always surprised how unplanned/unprepared some of our friends and relatives are.

I think it's mostly planning not recording.

My perspective may be a bit burned out right now, having spent the last week going through my father's files, but I guess it depends on what you're doing with it.

If you're collecting information because you feel that you won't be able to get it from somewhere else when you need it, then you're creating a backup system.

If you're collecting information because you feel that you won't be able to remember it when you need it, then that's a different kind of backup system... but still essential.

If you're collecting information to turn it into plans or solutions or products, then you're processing it. You could probably throw away the info after you've created the plan or the solution or the product.

If you're collecting information because you enjoy it, then you're living your life according to your standards. But for gosh' sakes, make sure you label the damn stuff so that your family & heirs know whether to save it or whether it can be thrown away.

If you're collecting information because you feel compelled to collect something, or because you're afraid what'll happen if you don't collect it, then you need to think about getting help.

Up until last week, I felt that I "needed" to have every tax return that I've ever filed. Having a big Rubbermaid box of returns going back to 1976 seemed kinda cool. I never did anything with it, but it gave me a warm fuzzy feeling.

Then last week I found that my father is the same way... only he has every tax return back to (at least) 1959. Suddenly it no longer seems cool. If it doesn't seem cool for him to do that, then why should it seem cool for me to do it?

So now I think I'm going to start throwing away tax returns older than 10 years, or at least scanning them to a PDF.

Someday when I get a bit more courageous then I'll think about throwing away my Navy Leave & Earnings Statements. It's been nearly a decade since I ER'd, and I'm beginning to think that maybe the pay people aren't really going to come after me.

 

[Lsbcal]

...(snip)...
So now I think I'm going to start throwing away tax returns older than 10 years, or at least scanning them to a PDF.
...

I chuck the support documents, receipts,etc. But the amount of paper in the actual tax return document is pretty small. So keeping even 30 years of fed + state returns shouldn't be a burden. Personally, I'd prefer paper over PDF's.

 

[haha]

She still breaks out in a sweat when I suggest impromptu things like hopping in the car and driving to Cincinnati for the weekend at the last minute.

Cincinnati? I think I understand her sweatiness.

Ha

 

[rescueme]

He did similar things with food consumption (precise times, precise portions, calories, etc).
....
Never had children. I guess that would have interferred. And his wife had numerous boyfriends (not sure he kept statistics on that).

He controlled what he could; those things he could not (e.g. wife) was probably causing a part of his "problem"...

 

[donheff]

At this moment, I don't know where my house keys are, I have no idea what I spent today, nor yesterday, the temperature at the airport doesn't interest me at all and no plans for tomorrow. I feel happy though.

Sounds familiar, what was your father's name?