The Vitality of Personal Planning - Essay Example

Reflective Essay: Planning Planning has been one of the fundamentals, which humans have adopted for different purposes of life and development. From personal planning to city planning and beyond, planning are a complex yet an interesting process. Personal planning keeps a track of an individual’s activities, gives an effective strategy for him or herself and highlights his or her strengths and weaknesses. Moreover, planning gives an individual the opportunity to enhance skills and capabilities and to overcome weaknesses by identifying possible actions addressing them. This paper reflects the significance of planning in everyday human life by considering the article ‘In Praise of the Urban Sandbox’ and my own personal experience of planning so far. According to researchers and thinkers, planning is a vital element in an individual’s life. If one establishes goals and develops a desire to attain them without proper and efficient planning, he or she would not be able to achieve them. As per my own experience, I have witnessed that planning is undoubtedly a strong factor in making things right and leading them into the right direction. It helps me grow more in every field of life, and whenever I am unplanned and do not have a proper strategy for a certain task, either at college or work, I sometimes fail, or even if I am able to do it, than it is not as effective as I would have done it with proper planning and scheme[Jef11]. The significance and vitality of planning has been discussed by many writers, authors, and other intellectuals and philosophers. In the article ‘In Praise of the Urban Sandbox’, which was published in April 2011 in the Magazine of the American Planning Association, the importance of planning in context with video games and digital gaming has been emphasized. Jeff Ferzoco, the writer of the article, has discussed planning in a brief manner, which is at the same time interesting to read[Jef11]. The main emphasis of Ferzoco in the article revolves around the idea that planning can lift the standards and can turn the directions of certain things from negative to positive. By giving examples of games, he has stressed on the fact that games are not a bad medium which just consume hours of people and keeps them busy for no good. In fact, games have turned out as a good medium for people and encourage them to rethink towards certain aspects of life. They teach them by getting them involved in real life situations while they are in games[Jef11]. I have learnt a lot and games such as ‘cities in motion’ and ‘Cityville’ which has changed my concept and perspective completely. It is very well said that, games, particularly computer games cannot be considered just as games, in fact, they are effective learning medium. However, it has all been made possible with proper and effective planning of game designers and planners. While I am playing games, I become curious and possessive regarding many things, and want to make them work in a correct and appropriate manner. For example, if I see a long line of unhappy people waiting at a bus station in my city, I will try to divert that crowd to other station or will allocate another bus for them on an immediate basis so that they get to their destinations on time. Similarly, if I witness a decrease in economic and financial sources in my city, I will setup new industries and buildings so that it raises the economy. However, this seems possible only in games and is better said than done; but at least it gives me an idea how to tackle situations and what actually is going on. The game planners design games so efficiently that they almost portray the real life situations and issues[Jef11]. Ferzoco has also given different examples from different games in the article; those games which have made people learn, such as Farmville, CityVille on Facebook by Zynga, Sincity, and many others role playing games. Just like these Massive Multi Player Online Role Playing Games (MMPORG) in which gamers have to develop a city and every gamer works towards the preset goals and objectives of marking a successful construction of the city, we learn to work in the same manner in real life, and thus our perspective is somewhat altered and organized. Just like game planners have tried to incorporate such a nice idea in games in which majority of individuals seek interest, we can also evaluate and judge our decisions and tasks through proper planning and strategy[Jef11]. As discussed in ‘Contemporary Urban Planning’ by John Levy, he has also emphasized on the importance of effective planning in urban development. In the same manner, he has also discussed that how cities can be well planned and new green buildings can be structured enabling a healthier environment. He has also stressed on the transportation issue and discussed that with proper planning and funding the transportation system can be made efficient and better[Jef11]. I think that all these suggestions and ideas are actually linked directly to effective planning. With the help of proper planning, I think that people can do much better and contribute in a better and effective way towards their daily life and society at large. In my opinion, what individuals, governments and planners need is a proper planning approach, which is designed especially for any designated project or task, so that it may accomplish without any obstacles. The think tanks are also focusing on this particular area and are trying to merge their work and strategies with game planners so that they may add real life data and problems in the games. By doing this, a gamer can realize the exact issues and try to solve them through his own ways of handling them.[Jef11] I was not a gamer initially, but when I started playing planning games, I realized that they are not merely a time killing medium, but in fact provide a learning opportunity. This realization has altered my perspectives entirely towards certain things. Thus, I believe that planning is significantly important, and can result in better and productive outcomes. Games can prove to be perfect learning environments, as the research by the American universities and US Army Mental Health Assessment team showed that games are very beneficial if played for or under 28 hours a week. If the time limit is kept under 21 hours a week than it may result in stress relief, strategic thinking, and goal achievement. Works Cited Jef11: , (Ferzoco), Read More