Very little, if anything, gets accomplished without identifying and acting on the next physical, visible action.
I LOVE a good plan! I love to make plans, tweak the plans, and share the plans. I love planning more than doing (which is often a problem)! I love dreaming about big goals and all kinds of future visions.
But I remind myself often: planning does not equal doing!
Doing is the result of finishing the planning and identifying what to do first or next. I like to remind myself and others that this is literally identifying the next physical, visible action at the most explicit and granular level.
Next action thinking involves determining things like: who to call, who to email, where to go and what to get, who to talk to, what to type or draft, and so on. Next action thinking means getting the action item down to something so dumb, so easy, so simple that even a stressed out-sick-tired-mentally fried version of you can look at it and say, “Oh, I can do that!”
If your plans, goals, dreams, and visions are not making forward progress, take two minutes to identify the next visible action on each one. Then take the action…or, at the very least, put it into some trusted reminder system where you’ll see it again and then do it.
Then, remember to do this every single time!
We need a lot more next-action thinking. We’d all get a lot more done as a result!
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