How to Get Over the Prep and Planning Phase (and Actually Start Doing the Thing)

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Have you ever been stuck in prep and planning mode?

Say, you want to start exercising.

The next thing you do is go down a rabbit hole of watching YouTube videos of exercises, researching different types of exercises and their benefits, downloading apps to track your progress, planning the exercise schedule and it just keeps on going.

You will do everything except one thing—begin exercising.

Why does this happen?

Preparation makes it feel like you are being productive.

But that’s not true. Real productivity comes from actually doing things.

Planning and preparing more than what is required delays your progress.

Your perfectionist mind doesn’t want you to fail. So, it is doing everything in its power to secure your success.

Extensive groundwork is its defense mechanism. But unknowingly, it does more harm than good.

Being stuck in the loop of preparation and planning is very common. It doesn’t mean you are lazy or broken.

In this post, I will break down 4 simple tips to help you get out of the prep phase.

Why You Are Stuck in the Prep and Planning Phase?

1. Fear of failure: You will only fail when you actually do what you intend to do. Planning and preparing convinces your brain that you are doing important work. But what you are really doing is avoiding the work itself because of your underlying fear of failure.

2. Dopamine hit from ‘organizing’ rather than ‘executing’: You get a rush of dopamine from the idea of doing something new. Your brain loves novelty. So, preparing to do something becomes more exciting than actually doing it.

3. Perfectionism in disguise: All-or-nothing thinking is a common trait of perfectionists. To make it a 100% success, you spend days and weeks doing research and setting up the perfect Notion dashboard. Your brain is tricking you into believing that this will help you achieve your goals. In reality, you are avoiding the pain of imperfection from taking action and enjoying the false sense of achievement.

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Signs You Are Stuck in the Prep and Planning Phase

Here are a few signs that you are lost in the planning and preparation phase:

1. Constantly reworking your plan: You are never satisfied with your research and plans. Always tweaking and making changes and delaying taking action.

2. Needing just one more resource: Do you find yourself saying, ‘I will begin after finding one last piece of information, just to be sure’? That one more resource is never the last one.

3. Nervousness to take action: When the time comes to actually do the work, you feel scared or nervous.

4. Feeling ‘I am not ready yet’: A voice in the back of your mind is stopping you from beginning. You feel you aren’t prepared even though that’s all you did.

How to Break Out of the Prep and Planning Phase

1. Set a deadline for the preparation: How much time would you like to allocate for the research? There is no right or wrong answer. It varies depending on what you are doing the preparation for. Decide on the minimum amount of time you want to dedicate for planning. Set a timer. And stop when the timer goes off. It doesn’t matter if you haven’t found all the information you needed. You STOP.

2. Start messy: You will never start knowing everything. So, start messy. Let it be imperfect. Do it on purpose. Give yourself permission to make mistakes. Example: If you are making a presentation for work, challenge yourself to make a bad version of it, with missing information. You can always improve after beginning.

3. Create a Minimum Viable Action: The smallest step you can take to make progress is a Minimum Viable Action. Often, people hide behind the prep phase to avoid doing the task. In the above example, the entire presentation might feel like a mammoth task. In this case, MVA would be to make at least one slide. This helps you begin the task without being buried under research.

4. Make it public: If your goals are just in your head, it’s easy to say, ‘I am not feeling prepared, let me push it 2 more days before I begin, I can gather more information by then.’ But the moment you tell someone when you want to start doing or achieve your goals, the scenario changes. When you share, external accountability will fuel you.

Mindset Shifts That Help

1. Done is better than perfect:

Perfectionism destroys creativity. It does more harm than good. So, you need to start recognizing the power of getting started—actually doing the work. Imperfectly done is far better than not even beginning. Action leads to progress and betterment.

2. You don’t need confidence to start. You gain confidence by doing

Lack of confidence is another reason why you might be hesitating to start doing the work. It is comfortable to hide behind the ‘getting ready’ phase. You have to remind yourself that confidence comes from experience. You don’t need to feel confident to get started. Slowly, confidence will be your companion in the journey.

3. You can refine as you go

It might not be possible to make the best presentation on the first attempt. And that’s fine. You can improve as you move forward. Let go of the unattainable standard of having to do all steps perfectly from the beginning.

If You Slip Back into Prep and Planning Mode

It will not be easy to get out of planning mode. You might slip back into your old habit.

Here are 2 simple things to do if this happens:

1.Don’t shame yourself: Gently notice when and why you went back to the prep mode. What triggered it? What were your thoughts? Don’t guilt-trip yourself. Just go back to doing your work.

2. Celebrate small messy wins: Chances are that you might have taken the MVA or at least done something before slipping back. Take a moment to celebrate it. The win is small and messy, maybe barely qualified to call it a win. It’s yours. You took one step towards your goal. Appreciate yourself for it.