One of the main pitfalls I seem to fall into over and over again is failing to go beyond planning and actually getting my work done. I plan, plan some more, add planning to my to-do list, do even more planning, finish planning, get back to planning, re-plan and so on. It seems that planning – for me – is an end unto itself: I plan for the sake of planning.
To resolve this problem, it’s important to recognize the dual role of planning: planning as a process and as part of a process.
The Process
Planning isn’t simply done to pave the way for the actions that need to be carried out. Planning helps us resolve our own confusion and to manage our own thoughts. We put pen to paper, or mindmap on our computers or use any number of planning methods so we can clarify our own thinking about the project we intend to undertake.
In this respect, planning alone (without doing anything beyond the planning) remains a useful process to go through. It brings us clarity and relief. It helps us make sense of our projects. It helps us manage our own thoughts.
This is when planning can be considered as an end unto itself. We don’t need to do anything else to experience the relief planning, alone, can bring.
But to actually get things done, we need to see planning as part of a greater process.
Part of a Process
Most projects we undertake have a level of complexity that needs to be simplified – or understood – in order to manage the work associated with it, so we can get the desired results.
Planning is an essential step to take in order to bring clarity to any project and to define the action steps to take. The outcome of planning isn’t clarity and mental relief. As part of a process, planning must have a tangible output that gets fed into the next phase of the project. Planning is part of the “Thinking” phase of a project that defines how the project is to be carried out. The next phase would be the “Doing” phase, where the results of planning are put into practice.
What connects the two phases is The Plan.
The Plan
While planning, your intention should be to come up with an outcome that can be used to get work done. This is The Plan. While this may seem obvious, but if you default to seeing planning as a process (and not part of a process), an outcome beside mental relief is unnecessary. In fact, I’ve planned many, many times and simply forgot – or even threw away – my planning papers because I achieved the relief that I desired.
But to make planning effective, it must have a Plan as an output. A plan defines, clearly, what you intend to do in the “Doing” phase. Once you draw up a plan, the planning phase is completed and you can move on to undertake the tasks required.
Without a plan, planning can go on forever (and it usually does). There is always information to take in and alternatives to consider. But once a plan is drawn up, you can conclude the planning phase and actually get things done.
9 replies on “Planning and “The Plan””
Yes, this is very true, without a plan you wonder on aimlessly in life and you never really accomplish anything.
Putting your ‘plan’ into writing is very powerful indeed, I find it somehow gives me the clarity of mind to start moving towards my goals.
Great post, thanks!
Well said, Melanie.
The plan gives clarity AND helps you achieve your goals 😀
I love the way you write!!
This is a major pitfall of mine as well. I call it ‘paralysis by analysis’ (not my definition but it is catchy and applicable!). In fact, I could say that a couple of hobbies of mine are planning and listing (part of planning?) but the doing often eludes me.
I am also a knowledge junkie but need to be reminded to apply it in order to use it.
I will follow your blog with interest and hopefully it will help me work on the ACTION part of life! (Sigh… makes me tired just to think about it – maybe I need to think about it some more… LOL)
One of my father’s favorite axioms was “Plan your work and work your plan”
I found that writing my plan to be beneficial. But compounding writing with speaking it into existence is POWERFUL!
http://www.TAOofTALANI.com
Thanks for the positive reinforcement.
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Great post. Most of use have probably encountered the pitfall you describe here.
When I make a plan, I try to find some small action steps that I can do even before the plan is finished.
For example, when making a plan how to change your diet towards a healthier diet, you can start eating fruits and vegetables even before you’ve made a detailed plan.
This works for many goals and plans and so far I’ve used this very successfully. It’s very motivating to immediately start with some small action steps.
@Mary: Thank you for the compliment, and I’m glad you enjoyed the post. I’ll be writing a lot about having an action-oriented approach to life in the very near feature… so see you around! 😀
@Talani: I also like the quote: “Failures don’t plan to fail; they fail to plan” (Harvey MacKay)… which probably explains why I plan so much 😛
@Markus: I will write about this topic soon, but I’ll mention it here for relevance: The reason why I plan and plan is partly because I’m good at planning. I can see the big picture, link components together, find relationships, etc. Since this is my strength I lean towards it, out of fear that I won’t have the same grasp of reality as I do of concepts. Your suggestion is very good in preventing ourselves from diving too deep into planning (which can go on forever) and postponing the actions we can carry out! Thank you for that 🙂
You’re absolutely right! And sometimes over-planning to get things done can actually get in the way of getting things done, as you might have experienced too.
Keep up the good work.
@Scott: Over-planning is so easy to do because you can think to greater and greater levels of detail 🙂 Thank you for the feedback…