The worst part of planning is finding the will to start
The actual planning is often fine, it's the will that's annoying. Planning often feels like it will take a while and like it will not help much. It often takes less time than I expect and helps more.
After reading Just Fucking Ship yesterday, I felt like I ought to plan something to "try out the exercises," so I did.
I applied backward planning to the project of my upcoming Fluidity Forum talk. Planning took less time than I expected. Having a plan feels better than I expected. Somehow it felt like short of a high-level talk outline, nothing would help. But actually feeling out the timeline in advance helped enormously. In doing this I figured out:
- When I would need to finish things to feel comfortable.
- How much time I have to work with.
- How many rounds of drafts I can afford to do.
It's interesting how that feels better. Before I started planning, the time window was vaguer. If I didn't pay attention, it could feel infinite, and yet relentlessly closing. That left infinite room for well-maybe-I-shoulds. Getting clear on how much time I actually have made it clear what I want to do. I don't have to worry about the maybe-I-shoulds, because I don't have time for them. But I wouldn't have known that if I hadn't planned the project.