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How many people do you know that spend more time planning than doing? Status reports, benchmarks and meetings can get in the way of old-fashioned doing.

I’m not really advocating that we abandon effective strategic planning, but sometimes a next-action step is all that is needed. Case in point- I gave a talk last night to a group of students and their families on the value of Catholic education. Having given hundreds of talks, I normally prepare a rough outline and then let it happen, relying on instincts and experience. On this particular night though, I prepared an overly detailed spec of the evening’s topic.

Too detailed.

I was overly concerned with not forgetting an item on my overly detailed outline and therefore delivered an A-minus talk instead of a homerun. I would imagine that the audience knew nothing of my consternation but I went home and evaluated my preparation and follow through.

What’s a GTD take on strategic planning? It’s not a matter of take-it-or-leave-it. Rather, it’s about integrating next actions with the benchmarks and stages of a good plan.