Quotes About Planning

politician twenty-two years her senior, had been calculated, strategized, and arranged. It was

Measure twice, cut once

It is not economical to go to bed early to save the candles if the result is twins.

If you plan for a year, plant rice. If you plan for ten years, plant trees. If you plan for 100 years, educate your children.

If you are planning for a year, sow rice; if you are planning for a decade, plant trees; if you are planning for a lifetime, educate people.

Dig the well before you are thirsty.

The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The next best time is now.

When people know the desired destination, they're free to improvise, as needed, in arriving there.

The "occasionally remarkable" moments shouldn't be left to chance! They should be planned for, invested in.

When you're at the beginning, don't obsess about the middle, because the middle is going to look different once you get there. Just look for a strong beginning and a strong ending and get moving.

We cut back on expenses today to yield a better balance sheet next year. We avoid ice cream today for a better body next year.)

marry your long-term goal with short-term critical moves.

You can't count on these milestones to occur naturally. To motivate change, you've got to plan for them.

You can't script every move—that would be like trying to foresee the seventeenth move in a chess game. It's the critical moves that count.

If you want to change things, you've got to appeal to both. The Rider provides the planning and direction, and the Elephant provides the energy. So if you reach the Riders of your team but not the

As a result, choosing between Plan A and Plan B is not a close call. Here's the astonishing finding from the Forrester data: If you Elevate the Positives (Plan B), you'll earn about 9 times more revenue than if you Eliminate the Negatives (Plan A). (8.8 times, to be precise.) Yet most executives are pursuing Plan A. (See the footnote for more on the methodology and an anticipated quibble.)II

Seeking out one more option. Finding someone else who's solved our problem. Asking, "What would have to be true for you to be right?" Ooching as a way to dampen politics. Making big decisions based on core priorities. Running premortems and preparades. Laying down tripwires. Using these techniques will improve the results of your group decisions.

to marry your long-term goal with short-term critical moves.

You have to back up your destination postcard with a good behavioral script. That's a recipe for success. What you don't need to do is anticipate every turn in the road between today and the destination. It's not that plotting the whole journey is undesirable; it's that it's impossible.

The Combat Maneuver Training Center, the unit in charge of military simulations, recommends that officers arrive at the Commander's Intent by asking themselves two questions: If we do nothing else during tomorrow's mission, we must _________________. The single, most important thing that we must do tomorrow is ________________.

tripwires allow us the certainty of committing to a course of action, even a risky one, while minimizing the costs of overconfidence.

You can't script every move—that would be like trying to foresee the seventeenth move in a chess game. It's the critical moves that count. Recall

Sarasvathy, the professor, found that this preference for testing, rather than planning, was one of the most striking differences between entrepreneurs and corporate executives.

Make it concrete: Look back over your schedule for the past week and ask yourself, What, specifically, would I have given up to carve out the extra three or four or five hours that I'll need?