Planning is Overrated?
Long-term planning often restricts flexibility and relies on outdated information, making a vision-driven approach with weekly focus more effective.
Planning is futile
Long-term planning is a futile effort. Long-term plans make you feel in control of things that you can’t actually control.
Plans restrict improvisation to some extent. Instead of “this is what we’ll do because this is what we said we’ll do”, we should be able to say “this is what we’re doing because that’s what makes sense today”.
Plans that are written well in advance are usually based on outdated information by the time they reach execution. You have the most information and insight about something right before you’re doing it, not months before you’ve begun.
So do we just wing it?
Not really! What we must have instead is a vision and a mission. We must have goals working towards the mission, and ideas supporting this goal. We must have calculated guesses about bringing these ideas to fruition. What we want to avoid is obsessing over the future and trying to pen down every detail.
Instead of obsessing over what you’re going to do this year, focus on what can you do this week. Given current circumstances, what can we do right now that delivers the most value to our users, and aligns with our goals and mission?