While passion and excitement are noble traits, it’s worth lining everything up before rushing into a task. Usually, this means setting attainable goals, outlining clear steps for achieving them, and delegating the labour cleanly among your team members. You’ll want to include a healthy dose of deadlines while you’re at it.

These are the hallmarks of a strong action plan. Let’s look at how you can create one for yourself.

You probably could have avoided these blunders with extra preparation. As a matter of fact, 39% of projects fail due to a lack of planning.

An action plan is a list of tasks and resources needed to complete a project or reach a goal.

On the surface, this sounds like a to-do list or work plan. If you’re used to working in a fast-paced environment with tight deadlines, you might already fancy yourself pretty good at those.

But herein lies the difference: an action plan is about progress toward a larger goal. On the other hand, to-do lists are a hodge-podge of things you need to do in a day — none of them necessarily have to relate to each other.

In an action plan, each task has a clear purpose and deadline. They work together to complete a project with the standards you would expect from a high-performer like yourself.