Some people over-plan, which is often just a fancy form of procrastination - giving you some false sense of accomplishment by wasting tons of time planning something out to the very last detail... instead of actually implementing the plan.
Another issue with over-planning is that it gives you too much time for doubts and fears to rise up. The more time you spend planning, the more you may start second guessing yourself - or the plan.
Not planning, or under-planning, can have it's drawbacks as well. I tend to fall on this end of the spectrum, often "flying by the seat of my pants" (which I prefer to call: "going with the flow" or "following creative inspiration" lol).
This results in a lot of editing and/or clean-up work of course, but it also means I'm actually getting stuff out there (implementing, not just planning!).
Somewhere in the middle, you have... Strategic Planning.
Which is a well thought out plan, executed.
A strategic plan includes defining your strategy, outlining your direction, noting the actions needed to achieve that goal, and making specific plans to execute the strategy.
Strategic Planning Defined:
A systematic process of envisioning a desired future, and translating this vision into broadly defined goals or objectives and a sequence of steps to achieve them.
In contrast to long-term planning (which begins with the current status and lays down a path to meet estimated future needs), strategic planning begins with the desired-end and works backward to the current status.
* At every stage of long-range planning the planner asks, "What must be done here to reach the next (higher) stage?"
* At every stage of strategic-planning the planner asks, "What must be done at the previous (lower) stage to reach here?"
Also, in contrast to tactical planning (which focuses at achieving narrowly defined interim objectives with predetermined means), strategic planning looks at the wider picture and is flexible in choice of its means. -source
I like the distinction above between strategic planning, long-term planning and tactical planning. With that definition, I can see that I'm much more of a "tactical planner" - with a long term view, always working toward the desired end result.
Knowing exactly what kind of planner you are, and how you could improve in your planning, is the key to making improvements.
Lately I have been working on becoming much more of a "strategic planner" - and I'm putting the tools & resources in place to do just that.
I'd love to hear where you fall into the spectrum, and I would also love your thoughts on the The InnerGuide Life Planner
I shared quite a few tips too, so if you have any questions on those - let me know!
What kind of planner or "planning system" do you use?
Best,
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