Perfect planning

One of my favorite concepts from David Allen's books, Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity and Making It All Work: Winning at the Game of Work and the Business of Life is the idea of focusing on your "Projects" and your "Next Action(s)" for those projects.  I feel that this is the key to planning without overplanning.

My most common mistake is to act ("Next Action") without clearly articulating the goal I'm trying to achieve ("Project").  I know a lot of people who are like me in this tendency.  We act, often with admirable creativity, energy, and persistence.  But nobody knows where we're going.  We have a vague sense of what we want to see happen.  But we don't explain it, so nobody wants to join us in our journey.  We've tended to aggravate those who we work with and for who have the opposite tendency:  they don't take detailed, specific actions, but they know how to set goals, communicate them, and hold people accountable to meet those goals.  I guess I'm saying I'm a geek? :)

Those we aggravate make just as important a mistake.  By focusing on outcomes ("Projects") without penetrating the how ("Next Actions"), they can get frustrated because they know what they want but don't know how to get there.

Following Allen's Getting Things Done (GTD) system drives guys like me to document clearly the outcome I'm trying to achieve with each of those actions I'm taking.  It drives guys like THEM (yes, I said that with a hint of disdain) to penetrate the details of HOW goals can be achieved.

Specifically, Allen defines "Project" in a broad and unique way:  a "project" is any goal or outcome you are trying to achieve in the next 12 months that is going to require multiple, specific actions.  By this definition, I currently have 65 "Projects" on my "Projects List" related to work or personal life, but I expect to have well over 100 or even 200 when I finish documenting all the goals that are either in the front of or the back of my mind.

For each of these goals, one is to define one or more "Next Actions":  specific, immediate, ASAP next steps.  One's documentation of these events is supposed to be so concrete and well defined that you could imagine someone videotaping your "Next Actions".

One of Allen's greatest insights, in my opinion, is his recommendation to focus only on the "Next Actions".  A given project might require 20 actions to complete the project.  But Allen tells you to focus only on the 1, 2, 3, or 4 "Next Actions".  Act, assess the results, then pick your next set of "Next Actions" for that project.  This emphasis on "Next Action" has two main advantages that I can think of:

1. It acknowledges the reality that the best choice for "Next Action" depends on the results of your "Last Action".  We never have all the information at the start.  We act.  We learn.  We use our new knowledge to pick our next action.  When I've tried, instead, to map out ALL the actions required to achieve a complex goal using tools such as Microsoft Project, I've usually felt my time was wasted because--as soon as I started following the plan--the actions themselves caused me to learn things that showed all the plans I had carefully documented had to be thrown out the window.  Better to focus instead on the actions that, based on what I know NOW, must be done ASAP.
2. It is a weapon against procrastination.  It is easy to be paralyzed in the face of a 50 step project.  But a person can proceed with confidence if they are focused on a couple of clear immediate next actions that will keep the project moving and give you new insights with which to select the NEXT couple of actions.

So far, this approach to planning seems to be helping me at work, and I hope it will help me articulate to others where I'm trying to lead them (what outcomes or "projects") so that they more readily follow my lead.