When many people consult Ramit Sethi on dealing with situations of tremendous debt, they often find themselves in despair over how they can pull themselves out of such places.

But Ramit asks a simple question back to them, “What’s your debt payoff date?”

Most people don’t have one. They might think they’d be lucky to ever have a date where it would be all payed off.

But Ramit tells them they need one, even if it is 10 years from now. The idea is to have some sort of plan to stay on track with. The plan advises us what to do and when it will happen.

Suddenly these people don’t feel as bad buying a $5 cup of coffee that they want. Because as long as they stick to the plan of how much they put towards their debt, they know exactly when it’s going to pay. They can spend peacefully beyond that.

It’s easy to get snapped into the vortex of how you deal with a tough situation, especially when its important. It could be a difficult project with a deadline. It could be dealing with unhealthy aspects of our nutrition. Suddenly it feels like we need to put all our resources into it and stress ourselves out while it’s there. And we can’t let go of it from our minds until it’s over.

This is, of course, the natural state of our mind when facing a chaotic threat. The tiger we need to run from. Only this time, it feels like the threat is always lurking, and we can never let our guard down. But who want’s to live like that?

The antidote to that, of course, is order. It’s a plan. A plan offers us a path and a vision. The knowledge that we don’t have to worry at least this second because we’ve done the math and analysis and settled on this. Unexpected things can happen, but then we make a new plan. We find a new way.

That vortex in a strange way can feel comfy, because the chaos absolves responsibility and encourages acceptance of the situation. But you do have the ingenuity to regain control, and decide how you want to head in the direction you are.