The best plan

The best plan

I’ve been packing up my house over the last few weeks.?

At first, it was intimidating to look at everything and wonder to myself: “how is this going to get done?”?

At first I tried to make a plan of what to pack, when to pack it, and how to pack it. Ironically, the thought of mapping out such plan was so daunting that I ended up procrastinating for a couple of weeks.?

In the end it wasn’t an a elaborate plan that got me through the packing process, it was the absence of it one. It was waking up one saturday morning, walking towards the nearest thing that needed to be packed, finding a box for it, and repeating that process. And sure enough within a couple of weekends everything was packed.?

This feels like a common experience when faced with a challenge: a very reasonable and rationale side of us insists on making a plan on how we’ll solve the problem first?—?this may be the right call in some situations. Other times, I would argue more often than not, we would be better off just working away at the most salient parts of the problem?—?allowing ourselves to be naturally guided from one part of the problem to the next.?

The best plan isn’t the most comprehensive or seemingly well-thought-out one; it’s the one that gets you off your feet and started.?


The Daily Spark exists for two reasons:

  1. To document one idea every day that I've found helpful in my life.
  2. To inspire you to discover what matters most and to take action towards it.

Reading subscription: LinkedIn, Substack,?and Medium.

Audio subscription: Spotify, Anchor, Pocket Casts, Breaker, Google Podcasts, and RadioPublic.

About me:

I'm a second-generation Taiwanese American trying to find life’s greatest sources of meaning and make the most out of it

要查看或添加评论,请登录

William Liao的更多文章

  • The evolving premise

    The evolving premise

    The motivation for daylight savings made some sense at when it was introduced: It would reduce the need for artificial…

  • Give yourself credit first

    Give yourself credit first

    It took me several years before I started to feel comfortable speaking in meetings with colleagues. The knowledge and…

    2 条评论
  • Crisis of imagination

    Crisis of imagination

    When I tried to open the lockbox holding the key to a family member’s home this morning, it wouldn’t budge. Of all the…

  • Tyrannical Maximization

    Tyrannical Maximization

    Have you ever spent so much energy trying to extract as many experiences from a vacation as possible?—?which some part…

  • Why is this a problem again?

    Why is this a problem again?

    Lately I find myself taking issue with countless articles showing on my feed saying something to the effect: “How To…

  • What will you trade for speed?

    What will you trade for speed?

    Every day I witness drivers and pedestrians in the city doing crazy things (or, as member’s of NBC’s The Good Place…

  • Output to what end?

    Output to what end?

    At an AI conference about 10 years ago, an engineer had an intriguing way of describing his work that would later…

  • Laughing when you fall

    Laughing when you fall

    Sometimes you just have to have a laugh when you fall. Not because the fall is particularly pleasant but because if you…

  • Going through the motions

    Going through the motions

    A phenomenon that baffles me every time I fly is how readily some passengers seem to accept the snacks handed to them…

  • Only this for now.

    Only this for now.

    The idea of using a digital tablet like an iPad to take notes has always sounded amazing in theory but always failed in…

社区洞察

其他会员也浏览了