I've had really similar feelings around my 'action time vs planning time' balance. Looking back now, however, I feel that maybe it does make sense to front-load lots of effort into the planning side. You read the books, you try out 10 different types of knowledge management systems, 30 variations of to-do lists, dozens of exercise regimes, etc. It creates this database in your head of options and theory. I tend to believe that those who spend the extra time up front to understand the theory will end up going further than those who jump right in to the actions, eventually. A concrete example: Person A finds a well recommended exercise regime online and follows it religiously from day 1, without variation. Person B finds a dozen plans, and tries a few different things each time they're at the gym for the first few years. Person A will undoubtedly get bigger/stronger in those first few years, but fast-forward 10 years and I think Person B will have the more nuanced understanding of what exercises fit them best and will ultimately outpace Person A.
I've had really similar feelings around my 'action time vs planning time' balance. Looking back now, however, I feel that maybe it does make sense to front-load lots of effort into the planning side. You read the books, you try out 10 different types of knowledge management systems, 30 variations of to-do lists, dozens of exercise regimes, etc. It creates this database in your head of options and theory. I tend to believe that those who spend the extra time up front to understand the theory will end up going further than those who jump right in to the actions, eventually. A concrete example: Person A finds a well recommended exercise regime online and follows it religiously from day 1, without variation. Person B finds a dozen plans, and tries a few different things each time they're at the gym for the first few years. Person A will undoubtedly get bigger/stronger in those first few years, but fast-forward 10 years and I think Person B will have the more nuanced understanding of what exercises fit them best and will ultimately outpace Person A.