Plan Your Work, Work Your Plan

Several days ago, I drove by a bank that had a large sign in the front that read “Plan Your Work, Work Your Plan.” I have often considered starting a blog about all of the ridiculous things people put on signs. You see them in front of restaurants, churches, and businesses. One of my favorite is “We have the coldest beer in town.” It must be frozen.

I read this quote before; however, there was something about seeing it plastered on a large sign that started me thinking.

As I thought about it, I realized that many of us do a great job creating the perfect plan. We have everything planned to the minute. Our organizational skills are exceptional. Yet we never get accomplished what we planned.

We don’t work our plans. It is hard for us. Planning was great and rewarding. Executing to the plan is difficult. We can’t get started or experience false starts. The frustration builds until we throw the plan away. We don’t get the work done. We didn’t reach our goal.

Many of us can’t plan what we are going to do during the next 3 hours. Looking a day in advance is tedious and makes our brains hurt. We force ourselves to plan less than 50% of our work and so we are already behind in reaching our goals. We execute well, though. We can nail that planned 50% and usually push out an extra 10%. We can deliver.

To be successful we must master both the plan and the execution. Take a few minutes to figure out whether you are stronger at planning or working the plan. Perhaps you are like me and need to improve both planning and executing.

I am going to go revisit my plan today and then see what I need to do! Join me?