Quotes About Planning

Your mind goes through five steps to accomplish virtually any task: 1  |  Defining purpose and principles 2 | Outcome visioning 3 | Brainstorming 4 | Organizing 5 | Identifying next actions

how they might be articulated into productive shape.

of professionals down in the trenches, I can safely say that virtually all of us could be doing more planning, more informally and more often, of our projects and our lives.

You can't organize what's incoming—you can only capture it and process it. Instead, you organize the actions you'll need to take based on the decisions you've made about what needs to be done.

Ask yourself, "When do I need to see what, in what form, to get it off my mind?" You build a system for function, not just to have a system.

More formal and structured meetings also tend to skip over at least one critical issue, such as why the project is being done in the first place.

There are two types of projects, however, that deserve at least some sort of planning activity: (1) those that still have your attention even after you've determined their next actions, and (2) those about which potentially useful ideas and supportive detail just show up ad hoc.

many people let themselves get sucked into the second activity—dealing with unplanned and unexpected things that show up—much too easily, and let the other two slide, to their detriment. It is often easier to get wrapped up in the urgent demands of the moment than to deal with your in-tray, e-mail, and the rest of your open loops.

Books to read Music to download Movies to see Gift ideas Web sites to explore Weekend trips to take Ideas—Misc. (meaning you don't know where else to put them!)

next actions will make sense for you: • "Calls" • "At Computer" • "Errands" • "Office Actions" or "At Office" (miscellaneous) • "At Home" • "Agendas" (for people and meetings) • "Read/Review

We need to transform all the "stuff" we've attracted and accumulated into a clear inventory of meaningful actions, projects, and usable information. Almost all of the to-do lists I have seen over the years (when people had them at all!)

Vertical control, in contrast, manages thinking, development, and coordination of individual topics and projects.

Creating "ABC" priority codes and daily "to-do" lists were key techniques developed to help people sort through their choices in some meaningful way.

Anxiety is caused by a lack of control, organization, preparation, and action. —David Kekich

It's OK to decide not to decide—as long as you have a decide-not-to-decide system.

A "Projects" list • Project support material • Calendared actions and information • "Next Actions" lists • A "Waiting For" list • Reference material • A "Someday/Maybe" list

Review whatever lists, overviews, and orientation maps you need to, as often as you need to, to get their contents off your mind. After

Having an organizational tool that allows you to easily make lists such as these, ad hoc, is quite worthwhile.

Plans get you into things but you've got to work your way out. —Will Rogers

Anxiety is caused by a lack of control, organization, preparation, and action. —David Kekich The methods I present here are all based on two key objectives: (1) capturing all the things that need to get done—now

capturing all the things that might need to get done or have usefulness for you—

Projects, Waiting For, and Someday/Maybe lists need to be reviewed only as often as you think they have to be in order to stop you from wondering about them.

Minute-to-minute and day-to-day you don't have time to think. You need to have already thought. Obviously

Think of what a successful outcome would look like: where would you be physically, financially, in terms of reputation, or whatever? Brainstorm potential steps. Organize your ideas. Decide on the next actions. Are you any clearer about where you want to go and how to get there?