IMPORTANCE
The 80/20 Person knows that planning is a vital part of managing life for the greatest benefits. Consequently the time is freely invested in it. Though time and effort are put into it, the net result is that one saves going down the wrong paths (a huge, huge saving of time,stress, and frustration), makes fewer mistakes, learns more, and saves loads of time in the process. For each hour of planning at the overall planning level one saves 10 to 100+ hours of time. For each hour of daily planning time, using 80/20, one saves at least 4 hours.
THE CREATIVE PROCESS - FROM THE "END" BACK TO THE "NOW"
The 80/20 Person's planning begins with, as Stephen Covey puts it, "the end in mind" but in a more expansive way, with "the dream(s)" - what makes his/her heart sing, with no limits, a completely restriction free creation - as starting with restrictions is starting from a fear base, where few good things are generated. While a number of people go to workshops around "living your dream", they never fully flesh everything out and complete the process - and therefore get no results, sullying the dreaming idea again and feeding the cynics.
The difference for the 80/20 Person is that he/she knows that completion and full planning are the keys. A dream with no bridge means you'll simply fall into the river.
The Unrestricted Dream must be backed with full energy - and that energy is only generated with a full and complete picture of what it is like to be in the experience - and that picture is written down in complete detail, including being in the experience, noting all senses and thoughts, seeing the results - all of this may seem silly to some, but the 80/20 Person realizes that it is well worth the time (in the top 5% that produces 95% of the benefit) as he/she realizes the need for positive, powerful energy. (Of course, the 80/20 Person uses the pre-set, pre-thought-out formats in the planning section of TheLifeManagementAlliance.com.)
While still in the creative, totally free dreaming stage, the 80/20 Person adds brainstorming on ways to achieve that, establishing at least 20 ways and then prioritizing and rating them for practicality and impact. He/she can do this alone or, to increase the power, through arranging input from others (based on his/her clear Dream synopsis: "If this could be done, how would it be done?")
Once the above is done, the 80/20 Person works his/her way back down to what is presently implementable.
