Planning ahead

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Is it an autistic thing to plan things out ahead? I'm always thinking about planning out my future...in the long and short term. I plan out my day the night before...and I'm thinking about plans for college that I have 2 more whole years to think about.

Autism is not required, but many of us autistic types don't like surprises so planning ahead is a must.

I spend hours planning ahead and most of the time things turn out entirely different. It's a waste of mental effort but I still do it.

Vanilla_Slice

I don't ever make long-term plans. If I have to go somewhere or do something, though, like going to the shops or making a telephone call I very much prefer to plan exactly when and how I'll do it. I don't much like surprises.

I don't plan out years ahead of time just because I don't really think that far and anything could happen but when I need to do something I will plan out every single step for simple things and I make sure there are no surprises. I usually mess up though and everything goes wrong and stuff I never expected always happens.

It's more like tree diagrams with me. I look at a scenario and see possible outcomes and then decide what to do in each case and try to calculate possible outcomes of those choices. I keep going like this with studies, finances, living situation and work, things that have numbers attached to them so I can calculate different scenarios, like different costs, grades or salaries. I don't dabble with likelihood though, that's way to much guesswork. I just try to have a plan ready for any scenario that takes place, and I prefer being two steps ahead at least.

Unfortunately it's an enormous task and it requires so much energy and causes me lots of anxiety because I can't control for all the details. I try to stop it, but it's also soothing in a strange kind of way, like a compulsion. When I feel anxious I often find myself creating a new plan.


My head is full of "What do I do if?"-s.

I'm doing a lot of financial planning for my near future, right now. I want to be prepared for what might pop up.

I plan things out in advance, and if they can't go the way I've planned it makes me upset. If there are too many unknowns to make a good plan it makes me anxious.