Plans are important. To author our lives instead of being a pinball, we need to project into the future. Problem is, it’s often overdone.
Much human behaviour is an attempt to tame the mind. Wether it’s meditating, cleaning incessantly or working 50 hour weeks. Planning has therapeutic too – a sense of direction creates mental order.
A common assumption is that success is simply the execution of a superior plan. The domino’s are carefully placed and the lead is simply flicked. A man with a plan flicks a persuasive switch too.
But design is often an illusion.
Superior planning matters, but to become better decision-makers we need to overcome to-do list addiction. We need to overcome the domino myth.