My original title for this was “taking time” but so often we have to make ourselves do it.

Yesterday a solution to a problem struck me in the shower (where all good ideas come from, of course). After dressing quickly I sat down and start coding. Why stop and plan?  I can bang this out in an hour!

Eight hours later I’m in the weeds, and I realize I’ve completely lost site of my original idea. Only then did I stop and outline my idea. Maybe three minutes later, in six short bullet points, I have a concise plan of attack. My list is nothing fancy, but I immediately feel a sense of focus, and can see where I went wrong.

Tackling it fresh the next day, sure enough, I’ve got a rough but working draft of my idea done in an hour.

Once again, I’m putting palm to forehead asking myself, “Why didn’t I just do this in the first place?”

There are many reasons:

• We don’t think if it.
• There’s no instant gratification.
• It’s not sexy.

But the advantages of taking THREE MINUTES and planning are huge!

• Organize your thoughts.
• You have a clear roadmap.
• You can start to see potential hurdles, before coming up against them.
• You’ve got a reference for when you get distracted or stuck in the weeds.

Live everyone, I love learning lessons the hard way, and over and over again. 🙂 Taking a few minutes to stop and plan before you start is invaluable. It’s not as fun or exciting, but the payoff is well worth it.