Creating Space for Meaningful Choices: The Research Behind the Plan Phase of Constructive Creativity™

Many people assume planning is simply about organization. We create to-do lists, write goals, make schedules, and build systems in an effort to become more efficient. While planning can certainly help organize responsibilities and manage time, research suggests that planning may serve another important function: reducing the amount of mental effort required to manage information and make decisions.

When too many ideas, tasks, expectations, and possibilities compete for attention simultaneously, the mind can become overloaded.

Cognitive Load Theory, originally developed by educational psychologist John Sweller, suggests that working memory has limitations. Humans can only process a certain amount of information at one time before mental resources begin to feel strained. When demands exceed those limits, learning, problem solving, and decision-making can become more difficult.

This becomes particularly relevant in environments filled with constant decisions.

Throughout a single day, people may decide what to prioritize, where to focus attention, what deserves immediate action, and what can wait. Researchers studying decision-making have explored how repeated choices may contribute to mental fatigue over time. Although decision fatigue research continues to evolve, studies suggest that repeated decision-making can influence later choices and cognitive effort.

This matters because overwhelm is not always a result of having too much to do.

Sometimes overwhelm occurs because we are trying to mentally hold too much at once.

Ideas remain unfinished in our minds. Responsibilities compete for attention. Possibilities stay open indefinitely. The result can feel like carrying dozens of browser tabs simultaneously, each demanding attention without resolution.

Intentional planning creates space to recognize what matters, organize emerging ideas, and make more intentional choices about where attention belongs.

And this:

Within Constructive Creativity™, this is one of the purposes of the Plan phase.

The Plan phase is not intended to eliminate flexibility or create rigid systems. Instead, it creates an opportunity to organize information gathered during exploration and intentionally decide what deserves attention.

Planning within Constructive Creativity™ may involve:

• identifying priorities

• recognizing patterns

• narrowing possibilities

• organizing ideas

• breaking large goals into smaller actions

• creating realistic next steps

The purpose is not perfect organization.

The purpose is creating enough structure that attention and creative energy can be directed toward what matters most.

Research in executive functioning and cognitive science suggests that externalizing information through writing, visual organization, and structured planning may reduce demands on working memory. Rather than trying to mentally manage everything at once, creating external systems can support attention and reduce the effort required to remember and organize information.

Planning, then, may not simply be about becoming more productive.

Perhaps planning creates space.

Space to notice what matters.

Space to make intentional choices.

Space for meaningful creativity.

Reflection Question

What are you currently trying to carry mentally that might benefit from being placed somewhere outside of your mind?

Research & Further Reading

Sweller, J. (1988). Cognitive Load During Problem Solving: Effects on Learning. Cognitive Science, 12(2), 257–285.

Miller, G. A. (1956). The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on Our Capacity for Processing Information. Psychological Review, 63(2), 81–97.

Baumeister, R. F., Vohs, K. D., & Tice, D. M. (2007). The Strength Model of Self-Control. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 16(6), 351–355.

Diamond, A. (2013). Executive Functions. Annual Review of Psychology, 64, 135–168.

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (2018). How People Learn II: Learners, Contexts, and Cultures. Washington, DC: National Academies Press.

Constructive Creativity™ Research Disclaimer

Constructive Creativity™ is informed by educational research, learning sciences, reflective practice, systems thinking, and creativity studies. The framework represents an interpretation and application of ideas from multiple disciplines and is not intended to replicate any single theory or model. Research references are included to provide context for ideas that inform the framework.