Here is the truth about making a plan: The plan itself never works. If, however, you do make a plan, the chances of getting what you want significantly increase.

Let's say you made a plan to do something. You broke your goal into action steps, and estimated the amount of time each step would take. The plan called for step A to take one week, step B to take two weeks, step C to take one week, step D to take a month, and step E to take a day. This would lead you to F, which is what you want.

When you get to F, however, you may look back on your original plan with amusement: Almost nothing went "according to plan." Step A took only a day. Step B took a week. Step C, as it turned out, had five subsets, taking two weeks each. When you got to step D, you discovered that nobody did step D anymore. Step E took ten minutes.

Without the faulty plan, however, you might never have ventured forth to learn all you needed to know to get to F. F is where you wanted to go; F is where you got. You just didn't get there the way you had planned. So, even though it's probably not going to be accurate, make a plan anyway.

If you don't already have one, get a date book of some kind with room for daily planning. Then start laying out your step-by-step progression to accomplish each goal on your top-ten list. I strongly suggest you plan at least one activity to move toward each of your top ten each week.

Why?

Ready for a hard truth? If you're not actively involved in getting what you want, you don't really want it.

From: http://www.mcwilliams.com/books/books/life1/lf1_4d.htm