I think Paolo’s planning style is the one that seems to be closer to my own planning style. As Paolo, I also teach adults although my lessons last a couple of hours each. Precisely because of that, I need to plan my lessons very carefully so that my students are concentrated on what we are doing most of the time. Needless to say, all of them work long hours and it is a real effort to come to English lessons once they have finished working.
Thus, when I plan a lesson for my adult students, I usually don’t plan one lesson at a time. Instead, I plan a series of lessons at the same time because I think it’s more convenient to take a general perspective when planning so that we can connect the topics and other aspects which appear in our teaching units. However, I do not always start with the aims. Sometimes I adapt the aims to the materials I plan to use, whereas other times I start with a general idea of what will “fit” in those particular lessons I am preparing. On the whole, I think it is very important to plan in great detail but, at the same time, we have to be ready to adapt and change our plans if necessary. Finally, as most of us have a coursebook for our students, I consider that it is recommendable to use it as much as possible – but adapting, expanding or avoiding some parts of that coursebook – because, otherwise, what’s the purpose of making our students buy one?