Action > Planning: How to achieve your goals faster

The purpose of all your daily tasks is to achieve your goals.

To achieve your goals faster, you need to pick the correct daily tasks.

However, when starting out, you may not know the best daily tasks to perform.

In today's newsletter we will discuss planning vs doing:

• why the research trap will prevent you from reaching your goals

• how to get out of the research trap

• how to effectively plan so you can take action quickly

Problem:

You spend too much time researching what to do, instead of doing.

When beginning a new activity, you want to plan everything out perfectly.

• You want the perfect workout before starting the gym.

• You want the best business model before starting a business.

• You want the best running shoes before you run.

NEWS FLASH: You will never feel "ready."

The planning never ends— there is always more to learn, and more problems you may need to "plan for".

By the time you decide to take action, you've wasted weeks, months, or even years.

Note: It would be naive to say you should take action before planning for every project.

James Clear sums it up well:

Some projects benefit from early action.

If you're writing a book, it's easy to spend a lot of time brainstorming titles and dreaming up an outline, but it's better to simply write. The book discovers itself as you go. Yes, you'll need to go back and organize things, but this is easier to do once you have material. The key is to act first and then organize your thinking.

Other projects benefit from early planning.

The best way to build a skyscraper is to plan carefully. If you start placing steel beams on day one, you're guaranteed to run into problems. It is harder to make changes once you've begun. You'll need to tear it down and start over again. The key is to organize your thinking and then act.

Most personal projects fall into the early action category. (I don't think anyone here is designing a skyscraper)

Here is an example to highlight the importance of early action.

Imagine two different people, both starting their running journey at the same time.

Planning Person:

I heard running can hurt your knees, I better make sure I find the best equipment to prevent injury.

How many miles should I do everyday? I better find a beginners running routine.

I don't want to get cramps. How do marathon runners stay hydrated? Are there any running energy gels so I don't run out of energy?

4 weeks later…

Oh no, its too cold outside I don't want to get sick. I should buy a treadmill.

What's the best treadmill?

Action Person:

I'm going to go on a 10-minute run today.

I was starting to get blisters, I need bigger shoes.

2 days later…

Those shoes were so much better, my feet don't hurt at all!

When the planner finally decides to start running, he is still a noob runner.

At this point, the action person has learned what the planner has through experience and is a much better runner.

If the planner and the doer ever cross paths running, the planner will think "wow, this guy is so fast, he must’ve started running way before me." While the doer will think "why is this guy running slow with the best running shoes?"

From this example, you can see that acting will:

1. save time

2. get faster results

As a beginner, you don't need to plan.

Doing, and learning from your actions is the fastest way to make progress.

Take the running example: a beginner doesn't need to worry about knee pain, hydration, running shoes, because they are running so little it doesn't matter.

Once you run enough that you encounter those problems, you can find solutions to fix them.

This way, you aren't fixing non-existent problems.

Planning before doing is like choosing a random topic to research to solve an unknown problem.

It is pointless.

You can learn about a random topic, it might sound cool, but it's not going to help you solve any problem, because you don't have any problems yet!

Even the best advice or information won't help you if you haven't started. You won't realize it is good advice or know how to apply it.

If you do, you can more efficiently find solutions to your specific problem.

Why you need to avoid the research trap (planning)

• solving non-existent problems

• wasting time

• no point - you are still a beginner when you start

How do you stop yourself from "planning" mode?

Humans naturally plan because we want to avoid failure. Normally, this keeps us safe - planning a route that won't have predators.

However, in the modern world this leads to laziness. Instead of doing the action, we can plan about it and still feel productive.

Here are 4 steps I found helpful to pull myself out of the research trap.

1. Gain Awareness

2. Don't worry about what others think

3. Do the work, even if its hard

4. Proactive Planning

Awareness

You can't stop planning if you aren't aware of doing it.

"Planning" is elusive. We tell ourselves it is necessary.

Realize it isn't, and notice times throughout your day when you are planning instead of doing.

It's also important to become aware of what type of activity you are starting — some require more planning than others.

Don't worry about what others think

When you worry about looking weird doing something, you want to plan to appear normal.

However, the first time you do something, no matter what planning you have, you will look weird.

As a beginner, naturally, you are unfamiliar with the activity, so it will look weird. That's okay. People may laugh, you may fail, but everyone goes through that phase.

But, if you over-plan before getting into an activity, like the runner in the earlier example, you will look more weird.

So do. The sooner you take action and get over the beginner phase, the sooner you will stop looking weird.

Do the work.

Planning is a lot easier than doing.

So you revert to planning whenever the doing gets tough, or you never do in the first place because it takes more energy.

How do you do the work when its hard?

1. do it.

You have full control over your mind, there is nothing stopping you from doing.

Do not reason with weakness. You cannot.

Weakness is a powerful force.

How do you overcome it? Don't think. Just do.

2. do something harder than what you are avoiding.

Your mind calculates how "hard" a task in reference to what you're doing now.

Say you're avoiding taking out the trash, which is a simple task. If your laying on the couch, scrolling your phone, taking out the trash seems so much harder than continuing to sit on the couch.

If you were forced to do 30 pushups, then taking out the trash would be a piece of cake.

By doing something harder than the task you avoid, the task you avoid will become "easy."

So what can you do? Take a cold shower.

Cold showers are hard. Really hard. They suck a lot. Which is why you should do them.

After you take a cold shower you feel like you can conquer the world. Try it.

Proactive Planning

Getting stuck in do mode is dangerous.

You lack perspective. You don't realize if what you are working on is truly helping you reach your goals, or if you have strayed from the path.

Planning prevents this. It gives you the big picture.

Planning shouldn't be disregarded entirely, but it shouldn't be the focus.

You plan to avoid going down the wrong path, or any obvious obstacles you will encounter.

Here are 2 things I found helpful to plan effectively:

Coaching calls

"I just don't know what to do"

I told myself this for 6 months. I truly believed I didn't know what to do.

I knew I needed to do something, but I had no clue what.

I had a coaching call with a mentor, and leading up to it I was writing down questions I wanted to ask him.

As I was writing down these questions, I realized I had the answers to many of them.

Solomon's paradox - you give great advice to others, but you can't give that advice to yourself

So I started what I call "daily coaching calls" where I write down (computer or paper, not thinking in your head) questions that are bothering me and have a chat with myself.

Ask specific questions toward problems you are facing, and you will find you know a lot more than you think.

Deadlines

When planning, set tight deadlines for yourself so you don't waste unnecessary time.

Figure out the solutions to your problems and move on. Don't get stuck solving problems you haven't faced yet.

Here are the key actions you can take in your life to reach your goals faster:

• What projects am I falling into the research trap?

• What is an action I can do to get started?

• Whenever starting a project, get into do mode.

• take a cold shower if you “don’t feel like it”

• coach yourself - ask specific questions and write out solutions

• set deadlines when planning - find solutions to what your looking for and continue doing

Thanks for reading!

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