Hope Is Not a Method … Thoughts on Planning

I’m 58 years old and I should know better: there are times when I find myself hoping something will work out.

Who doesn’t, you say? You are right: we all hope for things. Having hope and optimism in a situation you cannot control makes sense. But, when you can control the outcome, why hope? Why not just plan and do?

Even the most action-oriented people can fall into the “hope trap” on occasion. Regardless, if we can catch ourselves doing it, we can plan and do instead.

That brings me to some thoughts on planning and what a plan should entail:

• A statement of the desired successful outcome. David Allen reminds us of this time and again in his classic Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity … it is something we need to be reminded of until it becomes a habit, a way of thinking. And, of course the outcome should focus on win-win outcomes, as Covey would remind us in his classic The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
• A sequence of actions and a timeline. This is pretty obvious, but to be complete, we state the obvious as well as the sometimes-overlooked.
• A listing of contingency steps, as needed. Things don’t always go as planned (or hoped), and you need contingencies for when they don’t.
• A list of resources and accountabilities. Not needed for the simple plans that you can implement yourself, but an essential element for a plan involving others.
• A list of assumptions. An often overlooked but important element to consider. Your action sequence is based on assumptions, as is your successful outcome. You serve yourself well to write those assumptions down and think about how realistic they are.

Anything I’ve overlooked?