The best laid plans

I have posted before about how I tend to do quarterly plans to cover my intended painting activity, so I can assess what I think I will achieve, how long it will take me, etc. "Monitor Evaluator" that I am (see Belbin profiles, for those who have never heard the term), I dug out last year's plans and achievements.

1) I planned to paint 274 28mm infantry over the course of the year. I actually painted 380.
2) I planned to paint 55 28mm cavalry over the course of the year. I actually painted 52.
3) The biggest success rate for figure completion was achieved between April and July, with 8.55 infantry figures per week, narrowly ahead of end July to mid-October, with 8.50 per week.
4) From the end of March to mid-October, I painted 254 28mm infantry and 28 28mm cavalry. Is this why we call it the "Campaign Season"?
5) During that time, I also managed to get in two holidays, work full time and steer around the various claims on my time, issues, demands and fun of having four children.
6) I only achieved 45.8% of my target projects over the year as a whole, as other projects took my fancy and basically got in the way!
7) I painted no 15mm stuff at all (I had plans for another panzer company and some lorried panzer grenadiers), no 6mm and nothing larger in scale than 28mm. Have I unknowingly settled on 28mm and, if so, why?

What does all this tell me? Don't make plans? Get out more???

1) I am somewhat impulsive, as 54% of what I painted was not on the cards when I started the period of the year I planned for.
2) Looking back through the year, I achieve most when not only the daylight and weather are better, but also when I am passionate about something. That campaign season from the end of March to mid-October saw me knock out 10 regiments, a couple of extra pike elements and two artillery pieces for the Jacobite War in Ireland (i.e. 1690-ish), commanders, dragoons mounted, dismounted and horseholding for the Thirty Years' War and a couple of flights of fancy in that I painted my sci-fi stuff I photographed and posted a week or two back and various Daemon troops for Warhammer, for no better reason than I wanted to do something completely different, as well as some long overdue Orc Boar Riders and commander for the same system.
3) I achieved far more when painting uniformed troops, perhaps unsurprisingly. That Jacobite stuff mentioned above took me 17 weeks to complete, with a foreign holiday and two units of Daemons thrown in, so perhaps 13 weeks in actuality for 10 units plus.
4) It is still worth me doing plans, as 45% is still a "PASS" (Grade C 'O' level) and I dread to think how I would ever get anything finished that I needed to without seeing it on paper in front of me!

So, what of this year? Well, see the next post.

G