The Power of Natural Planning
Sometimes we work on something and it doesn’t feel right. If that happens, it is great to remind yourself of the fundamentals of your work. It is what a martial artist does when she checks her posture, stances, and hand positioning. Or a pianist who turns back to practicing Bach’s Preludes and Fugues. It means checking if the basis of your work is intact.
If you don’t work in martial arts or music, but simply manage projects and try to get things done, one of the fundamentals of your work is planning. Did you spend too little time thinking about what you are doing? Or did you think too much, and now you are stuck in analysis paralysis and a rabbit hole of ideas? It is not easy to find a balance here, the sweet spot in between.
For me, one great exercise to find that sweet spot is “natural planning”. It is a method by David Allen, and its core idea is very simple: if you plan, follow your intuition! And if you follow your intuition, you will ‘naturally’ end up answering five questions:
- Why do I want to do what I am planning to do?
- What would it look like when I succeed?
- What ideas come when I brainstorm about the project?
- How can I organize those ideas?
- What to do next?
If a project is not clear, just make a list and answer those five questions. The order doesn’t matter. Neither does the form or the tool. You can use an app, a flipchart, or the back of an envelope. But make sure you answer all of them.
So, what is so special about this method? It is special because it connects two very important areas of planning: perspective and action. Very often this is not the case. You go into a meeting, you hear a lot of convincing and plausible ideas, and you go out without the slightest idea of what to do next. Or maybe you have experienced the opposite. You work hard, you are engaged, but at some point, you ask yourself: why are we doing this anyway?
The reasons for both problems are the same: perspective and action are disconnected. And this happens very often. Why? Because it is easy. It is easy to talk about big visions and avoid action. And it is also easy to simply get busy without clarifying a purpose. In contrast, it is quite hard to keep both on your radar, the higher perspective, and the down-to-earth stuff. It requires hard thinking. But it is one of the fundamentals of good planning.
So, next time you are stuck with a project, make sure you follow your intuition and you have all the five questions answered. If you feel confused about your project, you may put more focus on the first two questions (purpose, vision), and if you feel that not enough is happening, make sure you properly answer the other three (brainstorming, organizing, action). It may just save the day.
