Poll: Spontaneity

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I hate when people spring plan suggestions on me. If that makes me dull, so be it. My wife hates when people do that too, so I guess we're a good match.

If there is a change or proposed addition to my routine, even if only a single event, I want to know about it in advance. That way I can think about it, plan for it, prepare for it, accept it, etc. Or...shoot it down. I have time to decide.

I'm a bit more flexible on the weekends, but even then, if I've planned my day and someone wants to change things up on me and expects me to instantly decide.....grrrrrrrrr!

How about you?

Spontaneity causes me to be extremely stressed. I like routine, and if there is a big plan, I like to know about a while in advance so I can emotionally prepare. Even then, I might have a meltdown because in general changing routine stresses me out a lot. For example, I once went to an event that was supposed to end at a certain time. So I planned out my entire schedule and routine around that time. But apparently the event would go until later, so my entire routine was disrupted, and I had not one, not two, but three meltdowns that weekend because it threw me off so much. I'm not as rigid as I was then at the moment, but still, something being off schedule or spontaneous is never a good thing.

I'm the prime example of a man of routine, although I do like to break out of it from time to time, if only for the purposes of self-care. That said, if there's a change to my routine from some other party than myself, I prefer to know of it at least a day in advance.

i love spontaneity and want more spontaneous people in my life.

I recently did a personality test which was really interesting. I got my partner to do it too so we could compare results and there was a section on this. On needing spontaneity or rigidity we scored totally opposite. I think he was 1 and I was 98! so it was a wake up call to why we simply cannot accommodate the other very well.

If I plan something and I get too concerned with it, any slight failure within the plan is too much to bear. Ive kind of learnt over the years that its not a good way to be. If I dont plan things, but just do them as and when I feel like it they are always more successful because I dont overthink anything. Thats not to say I dont prepare in advance because I do, and anything new will be researched to the death until I am sure of everything. Its the execution that matters to me, and when Im doing that its better if I look (and feel) relaxed as if nothings going to phase me. I guess this is where I fit in better than my partner who would be sweating and having a panic attack because we where a minute late in his agenda.

Spontaneity is similar to impulsive

Routine is similar to, obsessive compulsive disorder


Once in a while, some spontaneity feels good


But the older I get the more OCD I get

I'd participate in the poll but I'm 100% in the middle. For some social activities that don't require preparation and don't take a huge chunk of my time are better spontaneous for me, since I can't get overly worked about and talk myself into not going. However for more major events I do prefer to have lots of warning and time to prepare, the longer I'd be gone or the more important it is the more time I'd like to have more time.

It depends entirely on what it is, when, how I'm feeling, what other plans I had, whether it's tempting right there and then....

For the most part, I like to plan things, but occasionally, for the right thing, spontaneous is fine.

I like both. Sometimes, I like to spontaneously do something, and sometimes I like to plan in advance. Depends on what it is. More often, I plan things in advance though.

I generally like to know the plans in advance. This caused problems when I was living with my parents because they like to change things up while we were doing them which frustrated me & caused arguments & meltdowns. They quit telling me plans as a result of me getting upset when they changed but not telling me things also caused me to have arguments & meltdowns. I got in trouble a lot for that.
I had this problem living with my girlfriend too. She has depression, anxiety & fibromyalgia which causes her to change plans a bit due to her not feeling well. We had to find ways to compromise. we do things later sometimes then we planned which doesn't really upset me much(except I don't like getting up early but I deal with it) & she tries to stick to the plans more & I try not to get upset when things change.
I think I may be like this partly because of my OCD.