Maybe you’ve dropped the ball on a project or regularly forget things you need. You may struggle with breaking things down into steps or figuring out which task needs to be done first. These are signs that you need to work on your planning skills. But if you play Minecraft, you practice planning a lot. You may not realize this, but Minecraft and planning go hand-in-hand.

One of the things Minecraft players love most about the game is that it lets you do pretty much whatever you want. There are not particular goals or quests, nor is there anything that you need to accomplish. However, when it comes time to build something, mine for materials, or survive a night full of lurking predators, planning is how you’ll get it done.

You plan a simple safe structure to protect yourself from creepers just like you plan if you want to build a castle. You have to consider the types of materials you’ll need for building as well as for adventures. You’ll also have to make decisions about the types of weapons you’ll protect yourself from the dangers in your in your world.

This kind of planning is really not much different from the planning you have to do to succeed at school. Planning is a skill needed for both short term stuff, like getting your homework done so you have time to play Minecraft, and for long term stuff like completing a project for the science fair. You need to gather your materials, figure out the steps, identify what comes first, and start working toward the goal. And just like there are tools for planning in Minecraft (this awesome Minecraft Building Planner program, for instance) there are tools for helping you plan things for school, like Google Calendar, Forgetful, Boximize, and First Then Visual Schedule.

To understand how Minecraft can improve your planning skills, watch this Let’s Play video.

You can find more videos like this, for Minecraft and other games you love, on the LearningWorks for Kids Let’s Play YouTube channel.