Hey look buddy, I'm an engineer. There always has to be a plan.

Wut.

You can plan to not have a plan!

So true, the hard part is knowing which you need when. I have had someone ask me every detail of a day before we left the house. My only goal get food and see what happens.

it isn't over planing that's needed. just remembering to take at least the obvious things into consideration. or to have trained yourself to do this reflexively, so that its something you don't have to think about.

some things work better with a bit of forethought. but some are much more gratifying to grow them in a way that fallows their own course.

that's the problem with building codes. some things, as long as sound construction principals were fallowed, would certainly create a more gratifying world, if they were built on the bases of ad hoc whimsy.