PRODUCTIVITY
Death by Planning — And How To Get Out
The biggest enemy of taking real action.
In my high school, we have something known as the ‘Student Representative Council’ (organises events, functions and more for the students), and I just so happen to be a ‘Representative’ in this SRC.
This past year, keeping COVID-19 restrictions in mind, we have done a few events (some of which were successful), but mostly, we haven’t really done anything that can be felt by the student body.
And yet, we have spent hours and hours in both online and in-person meetings… planning. So, if we’ve spent all of these hours in meetings and being ‘productive’, why haven’t we rolled out anything significant for the students, or for that matter enough initiatives to be felt by them?
It’s because we’ve fallen (as a team) into the trap of over-planning. Or, as many on the internet refer to it, “Death by Planning”.
Today, we’re going to go over what death by planning is, and steps that you can take to avoid it.
What is Death by Planning?
Death by Planning, or as I like to call it, “high-level procrastination”, is essentially when an individual or a team spends so much time in the planning phase that they run out of time to execute the plan/project.
This is something that I’m sure many individuals and teams can relate to, as often we feel that we’re being productive and getting work done (whilst planning), and the good feeling we get from that encourages us to continue planning, only for us to then realise that all these hours spent productively were useless because we ran out of time to execute what we were intending to do.
Over-planning is a form of high-level procrastination.
This is a problem commonly found in software development, as a quick Google search suggests, however I believe that this applies to more areas of life; in particular, creative or business ventures.
Take for example, starting a YouTube channel.
This is something that has the potential to change lives and provide a creative outlet, and yet the number one reason cited for not starting yet is one of two things —
- I’m not ready (eg: I don’t have a camera/mic/other gear)
- I don’t think anyone will watch.
The former is essentially a form of Death by Planning, as perfectionism is standing in the way of you and starting your YouTube channel. The simple fact of the matter is that instead of obsessing over the quality of your camera or your editing software, it’s better to just dive straight in and plan as you go — at least then you will have executed something, and you’re already ahead of those still in the planning phase.
Naturally, there are scenarios where extensive planning is required — for example, you wouldn’t do a brain surgery without detailed plans and research.
But for most projects that people take on, it would be far better to do a bit of necessary planning and then leap into execution before time has run out or the competition is ahead of you.
How do you know you’re over-planning?
To avoid over-planning, you have to be able to recognise when you’re doing it.
Here are some ways to identify when you’re over-planning:
1. You’ve finished most of your plan and you’re working out the minor details now.
When you find yourself working on the smaller, more niche details in your plan, it is important to remember the Pareto Principle, which essentially states that 80% of the result comes from 20% of the work — meaning that there are a few key aspects of your work that you need to do to achieve most of the final result.
Thus, if you’re already going to get 80% of your intended output, you’re making exponentially decreasing gains by working on the small details. At this point, it is far better to just execute your plan, and work out the smaller details later to get that extra 20%.
2. You (or your team) never feel satisfied with the plan.
Many of us (as part of over-planning) fall into the trap of trying to account for every single thing that could go wrong and integrate it into the plan.
For example, if I was planning a holiday, me attempting to foresee every possible issue that arises and create contingency plans would be useless and a waste of time, because life can throw anything your way and planning for every possible problem takes far too much time.
Similarly, when creating a plan, you should always strive for the best, but always remember that no plan is ever perfect, which is why you should cover the main plan first and then dive straight into execution. If you do encounter problems later on, this is a great opportunity to learn how to think on your feet (more on that later).
3. You move on from one project to the next.
Falling into the Planning Trap leads to several things, one of which includes feeling burnt out and exhausted due to your plan not feeling adequate enough.
When we start to feel burnt out with a project (or any aspect of life) we tend to lose our once-held passion for it, and so we drop it.
Burnout is usually a pretty good sign that you’ve reached Death by Planning
If you notice that you’re constantly moving on from project to project (or any endeavour in life), this is a clear indication that you could be planning/preparing things way too much. This is one of the biggest impacts that over-planning can have — you’re not able to get as much done due to your perfectionism.
So the key to getting more done and learning more is recognising your perfectionism, abandoning it (to some extent) and trying to be as effective as possible. This means being ruthless in what you pay attention to when preparing for something.
If you’re still not convinced, one may say,
“But Sen, planning extensively has worked for me every single time. Sure, I get burnt out occasionally, but at least I’m not caught off-guard!”
Here’s why that’s a detrimental attitude to have.
I get it.
I’m also a Type-A kind of guy. I hate being caught off-guard.
But over the last couple of years I’ve learnt that the most spontaneous, unplanned moments teach us the most and make the best memories, and now I make an active effort to not over-plan.
Not having a plan for every single thing in life/projects/endeavours/anything similar means that you’ll be caught in moments where you don’t already know what to do. These are the moments that truly test how flexible you are and how well you can think on your feet.
As great of a skill as being able to plan is, arguably a far more important skill is how well you can adapt to situations of adversity (word-choice might be a bit extreme but it’s the truth).
Furthermore, like I mentioned earlier, the best memories are often a result of impulsive moments and actions. This might not necessarily relate to project management, but think about it — it’s always the last-minute trips, late-night outings and impulse choices that often lead to the everlasting memories. This could also be applied in some sense to taking on new projects. Not having a plan and grabbing the camera to make a YouTube video could change your life completely. But even if it doesn’t, that’s okay. To quote Mark Twain,
Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.
So, how do you get out of Death by Planning?
The number one way to stop over-planning is to take a step back and assess the situation.
Take a day or two off from the project by doing other tasks that aren’t related to your project — perhaps go on a day trip, work on another passion, spend time with family — and then return to your project and assess the current status of the project.
Often times it is hard to detach ourselves from our work and view it more critically and objectively, but this is what you will need to do, regardless of whatever it takes.
In my opinion, the best way to do this is to look at the product/project in the mindset of the person who will be on the receiving end.
For example, this year (as I mentioned earlier) in our SRC, we’ve been discussing ways to get more student involvement. One of the ways that was proposed was to be completely transparent — this would include revealing all meeting notes and posting regular updates on Medium. This discussion ended up taking several meeting hours, only for us to come to the conclusion that in a high school, nobody actually cares about transparency — they only care about the direct benefit to them.
Next time you tackle a project — try this out. Take a few days off, and come back to it with a fresh perspective. You’ll be able to cut down on more than you ever thought.
If you’ve got any other methods for getting past Death by Planning, leave a comment and let me know! I’ll leave you with this great quote from Walt Disney —
“The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.”
