I have learned that this is actually not the case at all. Being organized actually takes a lot less effort than people might think. As a professional organizer, I would categorize myself as a planner only to a degree. I think I have the ability to distinguish between what is important to plan, and what doesn't require extensive planning and how much time I would need for planning.
One useful tool that might replace actual large scale planning are checklists. I find this works great at home and at work in the office. I write down the tasks and draw a little square beside each one that I can happily thick off when the task is complete. This keeps me informed on what lies ahead, it keeps me organized and it takes up very little of my time to write these tasks down.
Checklists are a form of planning. If you are planning an event or a trip, you can start writing down what you need to do, or what you need to take with you on your trip, couple of months ahead of time. As the day of your event approaches, you will have better idea of how prepared you are and what is left to accomplish. Similarly, for traveling, packing for your trip will be easy if you have already invested your time in thinking through all the things that you might possibly need for your trip. You would have already purchased or prepared things that you needed, and as a result avoided last minute scramble to get everything. As we always say, breaking down tasks and plans in smaller entities always helps achieve the ultimate goal faster and more efficiently.
