Execution is so much more difficult than strategizing. And writing the to-do list is a breeze. But tomorrow, the work begins, and you're going to ask yourself why you made such grand plans.
When we make our plans, we have the ability to remove ourselves from the difficulty and pain of doing the work, so we have huge ambitions and we heap work onto our future selves.
We also believe that we will abruptly become superheroes and live in a world where time moves half as quickly.
Execution is hard. Focus on only a couple of very, very important things each day–no more than two or three at most! Shift your focus to your input, not the output.
Are you doing that very, very important work? Good. Keep going. The output will come from that. Focus on the hours you spend working or focus on anything that you actually do rather than getting stuck focused on massive deliverables that take much more time to complete.
Focus on writing 5x paragraphs a day, rather than your goal of writing a book this year. Focus on smoothing the concrete driveway with each trowel stroke you make, rather than how many driveways you want to build each week.
By doing more smooth trowel strokes, and by writing more paragraphs, you will deliver on your goal, and probably go much higher, too.
Achievable tasks focused on vitally important things is the way.