Planning the First Draft

*This is the last day to enter the giveaway for a signed paperback of A Castle in the Sky and other goodies! Be sure and fill out the Rafflecopter form to the right. Thank you, and good luck!*
When it comes to novel writing, I've never been one to meticulously plan things. I know there are a lot of different methods out there, and I have looked over some, but most of them go right over my head. I'm not a terribly methodical person; I tend to go more by feeling when it comes to writing. I usually just dive right in and see where the story takes me. But I've slowly been trying to plan more when it comes to writing, especially the first draft.
Now that I'm beginning the first draft of a new novel, I'm trying to plan how I want this book to go. Everything is very basic and bare bones at the moment, but I want to at least have the general plot for the book down before I start writing it. So I'm listing the things that I know I want to happen in this book before I dive right in. Since this novel is a sequel, that involves resolving things that were left open in the first novel, bringing in new characters to shake things up a little, etc...
I know there are some people that plan each chapter of their book, write bios for all major characters, descriptions of all locations, etc... And I just can't do that. I get antsy and just want to dive right in and start telling a story. But planning out a few simple things, some of the major points of the story that I know I want to happen and the general outline of the story, I can handle.
Maybe I'm wrong; maybe I should plan more when it comes to writing. But this is what seems best for me right now.
How do you go about planning first drafts and novels?
-Miranda Atchley