Should we make a detailed plan?
Setting a goal and writing a plan to achieve it step by step is one of the important skills. Whether you are working on a project or for personal life. However, make good planning is not easy, and of course make a plan, too. When I was a student, I deliberate learning to make a plan along with my friends. Some of them work, and some were not.
In this article, I will share how to make a good plan base on my experience. And why it is important as a tool to achieve our goals.
Planning vs Plan
Planning and Plan seem like two simple words. However, it makes many people confuse and mislead about the concept. Planning and plan are actually different things. Making planning and writing a plan need different efforts. To make it simple, I will give you an analogy.
Planning is a compass. When you are a sailor, sailing your ship in the sea, you need a compass as a direction. If you know the direction, you will be easier to reach your goal. By using the compass you also know where your position right now.
Good planning will help you, as a leader, directing your team to achieve the goals. It will help you avoid the bewilderment to where you and your team should go. Like a compass, planning will explain where your position today.
Then, Plan is a map. The map has a detailed picture of the landscape. If you open a google map, it has a details description of the location. The road, the building and so forth. With a map, you can get the tramontane place easier and saving your time and energy.
Similar to a map, a good plan must be detailed. You should make a detailed plan of what will you do each day, each week, and each month. Besides the to-do list, a plan should consist of how to measure the plan, how to control and how to manage.
With a plan, you and your team will achieve every milestone faster and efficiently. Because with a detailed to-do list, you will take action every day and able to measure how effective it is.
Planning is a tool, not a goal
No longer after I graduate, some of my close friends asking me about my next goal. Do I looking for a job or starting a business. I said to them, I don’t want both. Having a good job or a profitable business is a tool, not a goal. My goal is I want to leverage my financial ability for the next five years.
My planning can be looking for a good job and a good career as well. Or I starting my business. So, here wether jobs and business is just a tool to achieve my goals. Which one of these two that more closes to my financial goals.
If I choose the business, I should make a plan for how it will grow in the next few months and in a long term basis. If I need 1 billion dollars, for instance, what kind of product or business that I will do. So, I must have planning to guide me to achieve the goal.
And the important one, I should write down a plan for next week in detail format to make me more efficient in stepping the milestone. In short, I want to say, Planning and plan is just a tool. It will work well if you set a clear goal first.
