Follow the 10% Rule When Designing Systems for Your Job
Planning is important, but sometimes we get so carried away with making a plan to achieve our goals and get things done that we delay reaching our goals and getting things done. To avoid this habit, author Neil Hughes suggests a 10% rule of thumb for building systems.
We talked about how too much planning is indistinguishable from procrastination . When you spend too much time scheduling a book, you are wasting valuable time writing a book. Over-planning is a very dangerous form of procrastination because it appears to be productive . On the other hand, you really need some kind of plan to get started with a goal, and you want to make sure it’s a good one so that you really stick to it. Here’s what Hughes suggests at Puttylike:
The systems are great, but we’ve all heard of students who spend all their time scheduling changes and never make any real changes. Get out of this trap: Reconsider how you use your time. A good rule of thumb might be that no more than 10% of your time should be spent building systems; 90% should be spent on using these systems. (Of course, choose the percentage that’s right for you. A good rule of thumb is never to blindly copy anyone’s rule of thumb.)
It’s worth noting that you, too, often set up your system on the go. You may find that you work better in the evenings and, for example, need to reschedule your writing sessions. However, you won’t know how to set up anything until you start. Hughes’ full post is definitely worth reading. It offers a lot more information on how to avoid over-analyzing your projects and just get started with them. Read what he says in the link below.