I try to tell my daughter (and wife) that never plan to be there on time, always plan to be early. Because inevitably, life happens and slows things down. Even on the trip to the gym which takes about 5 minutes for us, my wife leaves so she will be there on time, but there is often some traffic issue that makes her late. There is a penalty for not signing into the classes on time on arrival.

It is like, if you have a plan, you can use your brainpower for the fun stuff!

Absolutely. A well planned life isn't boring at all - as long as the plan is to have say 20% unplanned with some fun things to do :)