If you ask my friends and family to describe me, “organized” is usually the first word that comes up. I’ve always loved bringing order to my world. As a kid, I kept a clean and tidy room. Every toy, knick-knack, and item of clothing had a place and was never left out. I valued tidiness so much that I would clean my (less than organized) sister’s room for her. I completed my homework at the start of an evening or weekend, and if I had a large project, I had it done ahead of schedule. My organization skills reached peak performance when I became a wife and mom of three, now responsible for managing a household with seemingly never-ending laundry, cleaning, and shopping responsibilities.
At the root of my passion for order is my desire to feel prepared. Systematically assembling my space, structuring my time, and planning my activities gives me confidence and peace of mind. But here’s the catch: preparation alone isn’t enough. Over the years, I’ve learned (and continue to learn) that preparation must be paired with adaptability. Without flexibility, even the best-laid plans can fall apart. I was reminded of this recently when I entered a customer meeting full of ideas for the next phase of work, only to learn they first needed to reassess their priorities before considering anything new. In that moment, all my preparation took a back seat, and adaptability became the real skill that carried the conversation forward.
That balance—being both prepared and adaptable—is what we at TBD Solutions call adaptive preparation. It’s about finding the goldilocks amount of readiness: not too much, not too little—just right.
But how does one do that?
Maybe you tend to be over-prepared and under-adaptable like me. We feel most comfortable with ample time to plan and prepare and to consider all possible scenarios. Too little preparation is the stuff of nightmares for us—it makes us feel anxious and ill-equipped. Our mindset can be rigid and inflexible, and change is hard for us. We’re meticulous, organized, and reliable—but often at the cost of agility. We cling to our plans like life rafts, sometimes to our own detriment.
Or perhaps you’re the type of person who thrives in spontaneity. Adaptiveness is your strength. People like you are often described as flexible, quick-thinking, and resilient in the face of change. You’re comfortable with uncertainty and can pivot easily when things don’t go as expected. But this strength can have a shadow side, too. You may procrastinate or delay getting started because you believe you can always figure it out on the fly. While your improvisational nature can be a gift, it can also lead to missed deadlines, overlooked details, or a sense of being unprepared and scattered.
Regardless of our inclination, the goal isn’t to become someone we’re not—it’s to recognize where we stand and build habits that help us draw from both ends of the spectrum. The over-prepared can benefit from loosening their grip on control and allowing for more flexibility. The hyper-adaptable can benefit from building in more structure and forethought. Growth lives in the middle ground.
Finding that sweet spot of being prepared while being adaptable is challenging, but worth the reward. When we find that rhythm of preparing enough that we feel confident, but not so much that we can’t be nimble, it unlocks the possibility to be great at the work we do and to have fun doing it.
If you find yourself in search of that rhythm, here are some tips to move your needle closer to the middle of the proverbial adaptive preparation spectrum.
Develop a growth mindset.
Expand your comfort zone by learning and trying new things. Seek out learning opportunities by requesting tasks that you have not done before, researching what is new and innovative in your field, or participating in a training. Push yourself to take more risks and view them as a learning experience, don’t expect perfection.
Ask yourself how you can help your future self.
You will thank yourself later for the proactive steps you take now. For instance, schedule time to plan an agenda a week ahead of the meeting. When that day comes, you will be glad you have that time reserved so that step doesn’t get missed or it is no longer feasible to gather key participants. Or create an outline of the brief or training while you’re drafting the proposal or budget. When the time comes to start writing or researching, you will thank yourself for putting thoughts to paper while they were fresh.
Leverage planning tools at your disposal.
Two tools that I love are my Outlook calendar and Asana. An electronic calendar supplies a system for organizing your time. I find it helpful to block time to work on specific tasks and to color-code my tasks by type, such as meetings and project work. This gives me a helpful at-a-glance view of my day and week. Asana, a project management tool, serves to organize projects and tasks. I find this tool to be useful in mapping out the sequence of steps it takes to complete a larger task and in holding people accountable to the tasks and deadlines they are assigned.
Design an environment that supports your goals.
This tip comes from James Clear, author of the popular self-help book, Atomic Habits. Clear proposes that you optimize your environment to make cultivating good habits and avoiding bad ones easy. If your goal is to be better prepared, get yourself a snazzy planner or delete those apps that distract you from focused work. If your goal is to be more adaptable, create opportunities to regularly step outside your comfort zone, try rotating your routines, working in new environments, or taking on projects that require learning new skills.
Seek feedback and learn from it.
Ask a trusted colleague for feedback on an area you want to improve, especially if you admire the strength this colleague has shown in that area. For instance, if you want to be more adaptable, ask for feedback on how you collaborated or responded to questions in a meeting. If you want to be more prepared, ask if your presentation was organized, clear, and concise. Face feedback with an open mind, a willingness to try a new approach, and a desire to be better.
Find that “Goldilocks” amount of adaptive preparation so you feel capable and flexible. Excel in your work—and enjoy the process! When you embrace both organization and adaptability, you’re not just the child craving an orderly and tidy existence; you’re someone who can navigate life’s shifting priorities with confidence and ease.
