The military love this saying. It is a little more extensive with more P’s but in general the saying is “Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance”. Although I would love to differ (being a poor planner myself) experience has taught me differently. Having a plan in anything more complex than cooking breakfast will usually produce better results than not having a plan. This permeates all walks of life, and I am here to try and point out areas in which planning is mission critical.
#Fitness
Every year, hundreds of thousands of people will take part in marathons around the globe. Getting to a certain fitness level in which you can perform to your best in a marathon does not happen overnight. As such, it is only prudent to put in place some sort of training plan (so many bloody P’s!). Make sure you start early because injuries can set in if you overdo it, and be diligent. Endurance sport is not really about natural talent but more commitment to a final goal.
#Business
When it comes to business almost everything can be given a plan. You may want to use certain methodologies like Prince2 or AGILE in order to project manage any complicated tasks more effectively. Whatever you choose to do, planning in business is essential. For example, part of a plan when setting up a company or if you are releasing a new product or service will be to conduct some research about your target market. Without this crucial planning tool, you may well find yourself exploring an avenue of business which is just not economically viable. In short, it will not work. If you had planned ahead you could have got the research done (market research companies like bitcoin loophole website deliver quick results anyway!) and you could have avoided this mistake. Furthermore, if in your plan you had put in milestones you could have noticed the poor performance of whatever you were trying to trade and possibly come to a point where you could have cut your losses and avoided losing more money! Planning in business can save a lot of money, stress and worry.
#Holidays
The obvious one. Booking flights months in advance can save a considerable amount of your hard earned cash. Planning accommodation in advance is also advisable. Although having said that, there is a certain traveller’s excitement of turning up somewhere and knowing that you have to find somewhere to sleep. To be honest that excitement wears off incredibly quickly when you are hot, sweaty, tired and desperately in need of a nice comfortable bed! So book flights and accommodation in advance, plus having a plan of what you want to visit and when will ensure that you actually get stuff done on your holiday…presuming that you want to instead of just relaxing. Each to their own.
