Day 45: Planning and Execution

Actually, succeeding is quite simple: just do what you believe needs to be done and everything will be fine. It just doesn't work, and it's definitely not because you don't know what to do. At the start of my productivity challenge, I spent a lot of time on strategic planning. I asked myself how I even know which path to take and how can I be sure it's the right one. I thought all along that I just needed to find the right path and everything would be fine. That's precisely the misconception. There are many paths and many of them are the right ones. There's no clear distinction between right and wrong. Sure, I can choose a short or a long path. Even if I find a short path, I might end up taking a longer route instead. No matter! There's something else that stands in the way much more.

The Discrepancy Between Planning and Execution

The best path is worthless if I don't follow it. I can have a concrete goal, visualize it well, write it down, and break it into milestones. Then develop an appropriate strategy and divide it into individual tasks. But if I don't do the daily work, the many individual tasks derived from the goal, then I'm stuck. I won't move an inch. Even worse: if I think I'm doing everything for my goal, but I'm actually not. It might sound crazy, but it's unfortunately common. It's about pseudo work. Activities that actually lead to little or no output. Pseudo work gives one the feeling of being busy. And we all want to feel busy because being busy feels good. We wander around like little lemmings - not towards the goal, but towards the abyss.

There's a pretty big gap between planning and execution and it's worth investing time to close this gap.

Step 1: Accept Your Plan

Instead of constantly questioning your path, just walk it. Even if it's full of detours and obstacles, you'll still get there faster than someone who doesn't even start their journey because they believe it's the wrong one. So, don't doubt and just start. Trust that you already have a wealth of problem-solving strategies inside you that led you to this path or your plan.

Step 2: Write Down the Concrete Steps for the Next Day

Spend 15 minutes in the evening looking at what needs to be done. Now formulate very specific actions. For example, if you want to edit a video, write down that you first need to copy the footage from the SD card to the computer. If you want to write a blog post, write down what the post should be about and what learning you want to convey.

Step 3: Don't Think – Just Do!

The next day, do the following: don’t hesitate. Don’t question whether what you are doing is right. Just do it. Trust that you thought enough about your day yesterday and start with the things you wrote down the day before. Start the editing program and edit. Start Google Docs and write!

Good luck!