I hang a dart board about 20 feet away from my computer with some sticky notes. Includes stuff like attack / trade bishops / unsound sacrifice / make a waiting move / hope my opponent blunders / etc.
Sometimes though I throw a few darts and then flip a coin for the final decision.
It's improved my chess some, but I'm pretty damn good at darts now too.
Not recommended for real life tournament play.
Plans are possible when your basics are strong enough that you're able to nearly automatically ignore a good amount of your bad moves. "Make a plan" is useless advice to repeat to a beginner who can't distinguish between the positional form of a help mate, and a positionally forced move.
Just develop the basics at first, tactics, activity, pawn structure, king safety. After you have that down without having to think twice, you can get into plans with something like a Silman or Pachman book.
Thanks. Any particular book you could recommend?
Pachman's book "Modern Chess Strategy" is classic. Some recommend Nimzowitch's "My System" or a modern book like one of Jerry Silmans which are maybe modern classics. Some authors work better for individuals than others, I like Pachman but you could shop around and read some reviews.
sometimes if I think all is lost.. I don't resign, instead I try to get my king to the other end of the board before they checkmate me .. this is better than my old plan where I flip the board over when I am losing >.<
Thanks Waffllemaster. I'll keep an eye out for those books.
Don't forget my dartboard idea!
I keep seeing beginners being advised to develop a plan, as if that were self-explanatory, but I don't have a clue how to develop a plan. I'm not really all that sure what a plan is. I could really use some good advice on this point.