I had never felt pressure quite like this before.
If I messed this up, I’d be solely responsible for 50+ students not getting to go to the sporting event they had spent the entire winter training for.
Weeks before, I had accepted the position of Chairman of the Irish Society at my university in Glasgow — without giving a second’s thought to what the role might actually involve.
I soon discovered that one of my key responsibilities would be to organise a “Christmas Jumper Irish Pub Crawl” to raise money to cover the cost of our Gaelic football teams’ trip down to England for the British Championships.
This would involve: selling 100+ tickets, persuading venues to host us, and then herding large crowds of drunk students through the city on the night.
A sizable project for any student to manage—but particularly problematic for me.
For most of my life, planning ahead had been my achilles heel. I was a serial procrastinator.
When I had an assignment to hand in, you could usually find me doing an “all nighter” in the 24 hour section of our library, writing frantically to finish 30 minutes before the deadline.
Although I was far from top of the class, this delay-until-the-very-last-possible-minute approach had mostly served me well.
Part of me enjoyed the adrenaline rush of those 24 hour sprints to submit a paper on time.
But when I sized up this pub crawl project, I knew I would need to break the habit of a lifetime for it to succeed. Not only was our trip to England (and my reputation) on the line, I also had a thing for the girl I was co-organising with — which increased the stakes further.
While trying to figure out how I was going to pull this off, I remembered reading about “The Natural Planning Method” in David Allen’s book: Getting Things Done. So, instead of actually planning the pub crawl—as I should have been doing—I bought the book again, and began studying the method. Luckily, this was a rare time in my life when my procrastination actually paid off.
Allen’s Natural Planning Method is a framework which allows you to plan based on how the brain does it naturally.
It can be done using the back of an envelope or the latest project management software. You can apply it to big projects (e.g. launching a new business) and small (e.g. planning a birthday party).
When I applied it to plan the pub crawl, I felt a sense of control and creative flow unlike anything I’d experienced before.
It was like taking a clarity pill—calming my usually chaotic mind and revealing both the big picture and the small details that would lead to success. It helped me to anticipate potential problems (e.g. how would I move 100+ drunk students from one pub to the next?) and put solutions in place (e.g. borrow a megaphone), ultimately leading to a fun, smooth, and stress-free event.
I’ve used Allen’s method to plan almost every single project since — and it never fails. It’s enabled me to ship containers of products from China, organise lecture day events with 300+ attendees, plan holidays, build marketing campaigns, create online courses, and organise online summits with 40 speakers and over 30,000 participants.
Any success I’ve experienced can be directly attributed to this simple process. This article will now walk you through how you can leverage it to plan any project — no matter how big or small.
The process outlined below is a modification of Allen’s original method that I’ve refined over a decade of experimentation. In addition to the original steps, it integrates questions and thinking tools from some of the best investors, authors, and entrepreneurs on the planet.
Here are the steps:
- Clarify Your Why
- Prime Your Inner Operating System
- Envision Your Ideal Outcome
- Deconstruct
- Sequence Your Steps
- List Your Resources
Let’s now flesh out each in a little more detail.
1. Clarify Your Why
- What is the purpose of the project?
- What impact could this have — personally, professionally, and societally?
- What are the consequences of inaction?
2. Prime Your Inner Operating System
“First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.” — Epictetus
I’ve found it immensely helpful to consider the principles, values, and mindset I want to embody as I engage in the work I am about to do.
To do this, imagine you were delegating this project to someone else. What principles, values, and mindset would you like them to keep in mind as they do the work? Which would most likely lead to a successful outcome? For example, if it involves communicating with others, would you like them to be empathetic, clear, and simple in their emails? Or, if it involves quality control, would you like them to have a high attention to detail?
3.) Envision Your Ideal Outcome
a.) Think in Reverse
Instead of starting by defining what you want, the first step in creating your ideal outcome is to create a vivid description of the opposite. Here, in as much detail as possible, you list out everything that could go wrong and what the project would look like if it was a total mess. Take a moment to reflect on: what would this look like if it were a complete disaster?
b.) Ask the Easy Question
What would this look like if it were easy?
c.) Define your desired outcome
The next step is to create a detailed description of what your project will look like when it’s complete. Think of this as your “success statement”. Writing as if it has already happened, provide 3-5 sentences which clearly describe the ideal outcome you are working towards.
4.) Deconstruct
The next step is to work backwards to “deconstruct” your desired outcome into a list of sub-outcomes that, if achieved, will lead to project completion.
To do this, ask:
What are the key sub-outcomes that need to be achieved to reach my desired outcome?
Note: before you do this, review your answers to the easy question and disaster question, as these often contain the “raw material” for the exact steps you need to take. For example, when answering the disaster question, if you listed something specific that caused your project to fail, you would then “flip” that into a sub-outcome and add it to your list. E.g. “The food would be terrible” would be converted to “Hire a high quality catering company.”
5.) Sequence Your Steps
In the War of Art, Steven Pressfield suggests using “resistance” as a compass for action. The idea is that the tasks you feel most uncomfortable about, are usually the ones you most need to do. You can apply this insight by giving each of your sub-outcomes a “difficulty score” ranging from 1-10, with 1 being “extremely easy”, and 10 being “extremely difficult”. Then, reorganise your list in order of difficulty, with the most challenging tasks at the top, and the easiest at the bottom.
6.) List Your Resources
The final step is to list all of the resources you’ll require to complete your project. These can be digital (e.g. software), informational (books, online courses), mentoring (coaching or consulting), financial (e.g. funding), or team members (e.g. a freelance copywriter or web designer).
A final note:
Although the framework works for projects of any size, consider testing it on something small first—like planning a dinner with friends.
This will let you quickly move through the steps, experience the clarity they offer, and build confidence before applying it to bigger goals.
You’ll need no more than 30 minutes to test it out.
