How To Switch Gears Between Doing And Planning To Win Now And In The Future
Wisdom is knowing when to think long, and when to act now.
Everyone praises “long-term thinking.” It sounds virtuous, wise, adult. But try thinking about your ten‑year plan while coaching a client through a breakdown, triaging a patient, or kissing your spouse. See how that goes.
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: long-term thinking is not better, it’s situational. In many of the most important moments of life, trying to stretch your mind into the future is exactly the wrong move. It breaks your presence, kills performance, sabotages trust, and blocks the flow state your nervous system is begging to enter.
This post is a course disguised as a social media essay. By the end you’ll be able to:
Name the spectrum of time preferences (from in‑the‑moment to multi‑decadal).
Choose the right time preference for the task in front of you.
Switch cleanly between modes without losing momentum.
Diagnose the failures that come from misusing short vs. long horizons.
Teach the framework to your team, clients, or family.
I’ll use simple, public grammar with a few helpful terms from Natural Law (operational, testable language for cooperation): demonstrated interests, reciprocity, flow state, decidability. No jargon bath, just the words you need to level up.
Provocation: Wisdom isn’t “always thinking long-term.” Wisdom is knowing when to think long, and when to act now.
Why We Get Time Preference Wrong
Before we dive into tools, let’s set the context. People often moralize time preference. “Short-term = impulsive; long-term = responsible.” That’s a category error. The brain is a gearbox: different gears are suitable for different terrain. Moralizing one gear over the others is how our mental engine burns out.
We need a simple rule that respects reality:
Rule of Adaptation: Align your time preference to the temporal scale of the task that preserves reciprocity and minimizes external cost.
In public language: match your time horizon to what the moment demands, so you can perform, protect relationships, and produce results that hold up later.
Grounding the Terms (Plain English + Light Natural Law)
Here are the minimal definitions we’ll use to keep the conversation clear and the results testable:
Time Preference: The horizon your mind uses to value actions, now, soon, later, much later.
Demonstrated Interests (Natural Law): What your actions reveal you value (not necessarily what you say/feel you value).
Reciprocity (Natural Law): A standard of fairness, don’t impose costs on others you wouldn’t accept yourself, and when you benefit, carry your share of the burden. In time terms: don’t steal someone’s present with your future, or someone’s future with your present.
Decidability (Natural Law): The power to make a clear decision with minimal discretion. In practice: could a reasonable person choose correctly here with these rules?
Flow State: A focused, high‑energy, low‑friction performance mode, usually requires a short time horizon (minutes to the next step, not months).
Keep these in mind. We’ll apply them everywhere in this post.
The Spectrum of Time Preference (and When to Use Each Level)
Simply dividing ourselves into short- and long-term time preferences doesn’t give us enough granularity to understand our options. In reality, there are at least five distinct ways to divide time preference, each with unique utility value depending on the situation. We’re going to introduce that full spectrum next, and only then list specifics. Think of this as a ladder of horizons, you climb up to plan, you climb down to perform.
Presence (Seconds–Minutes): Sensory immersion, micro‑feedback, “the next right move.”
Short‑Term Execution (Minutes–Hours–Days): Clear win‑conditions, checklists, sprints.
Medium‑Term Planning (Weeks–Quarters): Roadmaps, milestones, resource allocation, feedback loops.
Long‑Term Strategy (Years): Direction, constraints, comparative advantage, portfolio of options.
Multi‑Generational (Decades+): Values, institutions, reputation, compounding relationships.
Now that you see the ladder, here’s how each rung works in practice:
1) Presence (Seconds–Minutes)
Presence is for anything requiring precision, trust, or artistry. It’s the feel of the scalpel, the rhythm of a conversation, the timing of a pass, the breath before a note, just the right touch on the skin. In presence, the right question is, “What’s the next correct action?”
Use when: Coaching sessions, triage, public speaking in the moment, intimacy, negotiation micro‑moves, live performance, code debugging, piloting, critical safety tasks.
Win condition: Immediate correctness and signal‑to‑noise clarity.
Switch cues into presence: Elevated stakes right now, high feedback density, body‑level signals (breath, tension) telling you to narrow focus.
Common error: Thinking about later while trying to execute now (future fantasies, reputation, optics) → drops, misses, forces mistakes.
2) Short‑Term Execution (Minutes–Hours–Days)
Execution is for shipping: do the tasks, close the loops, get the result.
Use when: Daily sprints, checklists, client deliverables, event prep, safety drills.
Win condition: Done as promised, no defects.
Switch cues into execution: Clear backlog, firm deadline, stable plan, low uncertainty.
Common error: Changing the plan mid‑sprint with strategic ruminations → context switching, sprawl, scope creep, demoralization.
3) Medium‑Term Planning (Weeks–Quarters)
Planning is for sequencing: order of operations, resource allocation, dependency mapping.
Use when: Roadmapping, hiring pipeline, quarter goals, habit systems.
Win condition: Frictionless execution later; known risks and buffers.
Switch cues into planning: Repeating blockers preventing action, unclear priorities, growing quantity of rework, chronic deadline slippage.
Common error: Under‑planning complex work and blaming execution; over‑planning simple work and burning time.
4) Long‑Term Strategy (Years)
Strategy is for direction and advantage: where to play, how to win, what to refuse.
Use when: New markets, career arcs, family decisions, capital allocation.
Win condition: Durable positioning; options preserved; downside insured.
Switch cues into strategy: Environment shifts, identity changes, inflection points, large capital at risk.
Common error: Using strategy time to do planning tasks (micromanagement); or using execution time to daydream about strategy (abdication).
5) Multi‑Generational (Decades+)
This is civilizational: values, institutions, reputation capital.
Use when: Estate plans, family norms, philanthropy, constitutional design.
Win condition: Compounding virtues and assets; grandchildren’s options expand.
Switch cues into multi‑gen: Legacy choices, irreversible commitments, institution design.
Common error: Trying to “feel” multi‑gen in daily life, produces anxiety and detachment. Design periodically; live locally.
Climb up to plan; climb down to perform.
Why We Talk About Flow Next
Understanding the spectrum gives you the full map of horizons, but most of your performance happens in the lower two—Presence and Short-Term Execution. The ability to enter and sustain flow in those horizons is what converts knowledge into productivity, trust, and connection. Before we talk about the failure modes, we need to understand how to enter flow and why it matters so much to mastery.
Flow State Requires a Short Horizon
For most people, most of our time is spent doing not planning. A flow state, also known as being “in the zone,” is a mental state of complete absorption and deep focus in an activity, where time passes unnoticed, self-consciousness fades, and one feels a sense of effortless control and deep enjoyment.
Why get into a flow state at all? Because flow is a hyperproductive mode where you produce both higher quality and larger volume of work (or connection) with less friction. Effort feels like ease. Feedback is instant. Time compresses. You’re matched to the moment so perfectly that performance climbs while stress falls.
Flow isn’t just for work. It’s for any high-value moment, creation, problem-solving, and connection.
The Soccer Player: The crowd noise fades. Field geometry is obvious without thinking. First touch sets up second touch; hips and eyes read defenders before they move. He isn’t running a five-play plan; he’s executing the next correct motion with total attention, step, feint, pass, strike. Time slows; precision rises.
The Computer Programmer: Hours vanish. The problem graph lights up; edge cases present themselves before they break anything. The keyboard feels like an extension of thought. No anxiety about the deadline, no daydreaming about the product roadmap, just elegant local solutions clicking into place. Compile, test, green.
Husband & Wife in Deep Conversation: Phones down. Breath synced. Eye contact steady. Words and silences both carry meaning. Gentle touch lands; micro-expressions are noticed and answered. They’re not planning the weekend or litigating the past, they’re fully present. Connection compounds because attention compounds.
These vignettes make the point: flow is the optimal mode for moments that matter. And the gateway is temporal: you shorten your horizon until the next step is vivid and winnable.
The Mechanics of Flow
Flow emerges in a window where challenge slightly exceeds skill, high enough to demand full concentration, but not so high that it overwhelms, feedback is immediate, and attention is narrow. Your nervous system cannot hold a five-year strategy and a split-second adjustment in the same working set. When the task demands flow, shorten the horizon to the next correct action.
To enter and sustain flow, use these practices:
Define a micro-win: “In the next 5–15 minutes, success equals ___.”
Reduce future-pull: Park long-term thoughts in a parking lot note. Promise your mind you’ll return later—and keep the promise.
Close feedback loops: Prefer tasks with immediate signal: compile, test, demonstrate, reflect.
Body first: Breath cadence and posture precede cognition. Stabilize physiology, then aim attention.
Flow is the proof that short-term presence isn’t shallow attention, it’s mastery of the moment.
The Two Failure Modes (and How to Spot Them)
We’ll introduce the two big time management failure modes briefly, then enumerate the examples.
Over‑futuring: Thinking too far ahead while doing a near‑term task → attention fragmentation, loss of trust/presence, avoidable errors.
Under‑horizoning: Using short‑term planning for long‑term problems → shallow fixes, rework, strategic drift, compounding regret.
A. Over‑Futuring (Too Long While Acting Short)
Here are illustrative cases that show the pattern. Each includes the wrong move, the cost, and the correct swap of time preference.
Coaching/therapy: You’re in session calculating lifetime customer value while your client is in tears. Cost: rupture of trust, missed cue. Correct swap: drop into presence; one breath, one question, one reflection.
Doctor Triage: You weigh long‑term rehab options before stopping the bleed out. Cost: preventable morbidity. Correct swap: stabilize airway, breathing, circulation, then horizon‑extend.
Intimacy: Planning what you will eat for dinner during an intimate moment. Cost: partner feels unseen; connection collapses. Correct swap: attune to breath, touch, micro‑expressions.
Public Speaking: While on stage, you imagine the viral clips that you will make from the speech. Cost: inauthentic delivery, pacing errors. Correct swap: watch audience eyes; land the next sentence; stay on topic.
Coding: Architecting the five‑year system while debugging a failing test. Cost: yak‑shaving, blown deadline. Correct swap: make the test pass; note the architectural idea for strategy time.
Negotiation: Dreaming about the multi‑year partnership while missing the current concession. Cost: unfavorable terms now. Correct swap: isolate the current issue; trade on value at hand.
Sports: Thinking about the championship during a free throw. Cost: brick. Correct swap: routine, breath, release.
B. Under‑Horizoning (Too Short While Solving Long Problems)
Now the mirror image: treating strategic or multi‑step problems with a short horizon.
Business: You “hustle” daily without a quarterly roadmap. Cost: churn, burnout, random walk. Correct swap: schedule a strategy block; pick a lane; sequence bets.
Career: You optimize weekly tasks without a 3‑year arc. Cost: low leverage trajectory. Correct swap: choose a stack (skills × network × domain) and compound.
Finance: You trade like a gambler, no investment policy. Cost: volatility whiplash. Correct swap: policy statement, asset allocation, rebalance rules.
Health: You chase 30‑day challenges with no periodization. Cost: injury or plateau. Correct swap: annual plan: base → build → peak → deload.
Family: Reactive parenting; no shared norms. Cost: constant negotiation, unstable boundaries. Correct swap: define simple family rules; revisit quarterly.
Product: Shipping features without a product thesis. Cost: Franken‑app. Correct swap: choose a strategy: wedge → beachhead → expansion.
Diagnosis Question: Is the cost I’m paying today the interest on a debt I created by using the wrong horizon yesterday?
These examples help you understand when you might be over‑futuring or under‑horizoning. If you’re still struggling to figure out if you’re making either of these two mistakes, reach out to me and I’ll help you make that calculation.
Now that you know what mistakes you might be making, the next step is learning how to fix them. The following section introduces clear, actionable methods for switching and recalibrating your time horizon so you can recover alignment and maintain flow.
The Switch: A Simple Algorithm (That You Can Teach)
Before listing steps, understand there are two kinds of switching: proactive and reactive. You use proactive switching when you are calmly setting up work, deciding what horizon belongs to which kind of effort. You use reactive switching when something unexpected happens mid‑flight and you must decide whether to pivot or stay the course.
The Two Modes of Switching
1. Proactive Switch (Planning Mode)
When you’re in control, intentionally designing your schedule or roadmap.
Purpose: Keep the right level of abstraction, enough detail for clarity, not so much that you start doing the work during planning.
Algorithm:
Frame: “I’m in proactive mode, planning, not performing.”
Ask: “Is this level of detail correct for this horizon?” Writing procedures? Too low, save for execution. Still vague on outcomes? Too high, drop down one horizon.
Decide: Capture only what makes later execution frictionless.
Document: Park premature action items for later work blocks.
Exit: When outcomes and constraints are clear, stop planning; switch to execution or rest.
Proactive mastery means knowing when to stop perfecting the plan and start preparing for action.
2. Reactive Switch (Firefighting Mode)
When something unexpected disrupts a current block of work.
Purpose: Decide quickly if the new input invalidates your plan or can safely be logged for later.
Algorithm:
Stabilize: Pause and breathe. Is this truly urgent or just noise?
Assess Impact: Major change (core assumptions broken) → re‑gear immediately. Minor deviation (local issue) → log for next review.
Decide: Re‑gear: Use OODA‑T (Observe, Orient, Decide, Act, Time). Stay course: Continue current horizon; note issue for later.
Close Loop: In your next planning or review block, process logged issues.
Reactive mastery means changing plans only when the cost of staying the course exceeds the cost of switching.
The Unified OODA‑T Switch
When in doubt, or once you’ve stabilized, apply the universal OODA‑T framework:
Observe: What is the task’s real stake right now?
Orient: Which horizon matches that stake? (Presence, Short, Medium, Long, Multi‑Gen)
Decide: Commit to that horizon for this block.
Act: Perform only actions valid at that horizon.
Time: Set a timer or schedule to revisit and re‑gear if needed.
Implementation Notes:
Granularity: Presence/Short: 5–50 min. Medium: 1–3 hr. Long: half‑day+. Multi‑Gen: quarterly or annual.
Boundary Objects: Keep a one‑page Horizon Card visible to remind you of the rules.
Parking Lot: Maintain a single note to catch off‑horizon thoughts so they don’t interrupt flow.
Conclusion: Developing Temporal Flexibility
Some people naturally think in the moment. Others prefer the comfort of planning far ahead. Still others operate most easily in the middle range, short‑ or medium‑term. But all of us need to develop the skill of moving fluidly across all five horizons. That skill gives you the ability to adapt your attention, strategy, and energy to whatever the situation demands.
The key word is skill. Time preference flexibility isn’t an innate personality trait, it’s something you can practice and strengthen. Even if it feels unnatural now, you can train it.
The benefits of mastering this range are profound:
You can envision your life at the multi‑generational scale.
You can plan the details with precision and realism.
You can execute in the moment with total presence.
When you can do all three, you no longer get stuck on one rung of the ladder.
We see this division of time preference in organizations: executives and boards think long‑term; operations staff and technicians solve real‑time problems. Even within leadership, the CEO usually thinks strategically about years ahead, while the COO ensures daily execution. The division of labor creates efficiency, but cooperation between these horizons is what makes systems strong.
The same principle applies in families. Mothers often focus naturally on the short‑term wellbeing of everyone, meals, comfort, safety, warmth. Fathers often lean toward the long‑term, education, career, legacy, and the family’s future positioning. Both roles are valuable; both time preferences necessary. When they coordinate, families thrive.
Still, division of labor isn’t enough. Even if you specialize, you must be able to understand, communicate, and collaborate with people working on different horizons. Flexibility across timescales is the foundation of cooperation.
So here’s your call to action:
Practice the types of thinking you’re weakest at until they feel natural. Shorten horizons deliberately. Lengthen them consciously. Learn to shift gears without grinding.
If you find yourself struggling to build that adaptability, or if you want a personalized method for improving your time preference flexibility, reach out to me, and I’ll help you design the exercises to strengthen it.
🧰 Tools of the Trade
Below is a collection of tools, templates, and checklists you can use to apply the concepts discussed in the article above. These are practical aids meant to help you experiment with horizon‑switching in your work, family, or organization. Some are described briefly and left in point form so you can extrapolate how to apply them to your own context.
If you’d like deeper guidance on how to use any of these tools, feel free to reach out, each of them can expand into a full practice or workshop.
The Horizon Cards (Templates)
A “card” here means a compact, one-page template that summarizes how to operate within a specific time horizon. Each Horizon Card provides:
The purpose of that horizon.
The win conditions or what success looks like at that scale.
The moves or actions appropriate to that timeframe.
The things to stop doing that belong to another horizon.
You can print these cards, pin them to your workspace, or save digital versions to review before starting a block of work. The idea is to make it obvious what mode you should be in, so you stay inside the right timescale and avoid slipping into the wrong one.
We’ll introduce each card, then present the bullet contents you can copy.
Presence Card (Seconds–Minutes)
Use this when your senses and timing matter more than ideas.
Win now: “The next correct move is ___.”
Constraints: Safety, consent, trust, precision.
Moves: One cue → one action → one check.
Body: Exhale 6s; relax jaw, tongue, palms.
Stop doing: Forecasting, status thoughts, reputation fantasies.
Short‑Term Execution Card (Minutes–Days)
Use this to ship cleanly.
Goal: Done as promised.
Moves: Checklist, batch, QA, deliver.
Rhythm: 25–50 minute focus blocks; 5–10 minute resets.
Stop doing: New strategy ideas mid‑block.
Medium‑Term Planning Card (Weeks–Quarters)
Use this to sequence and de‑risk.
Goal: Frictionless execution later.
Moves: Objectives → Key Results → Risks → Buffers.
Artifacts: Roadmap, hiring plan, budget, review cadence.
Stop doing: Micromanaging today’s tasks.
Long‑Term Strategy Card (Years)
Use this to choose direction and constraints.
Goal: Durable advantage; downside insured.
Moves: Where to play? How to win? What to refuse?
Artifacts: Thesis, portfolio of options, kill‑criteria, pre‑mortem.
Stop doing: Inbox, tickets, ops.
Multi‑Generational Card (Decades+)
Use this to encode values and institutions.
Goal: Compounding virtues and options.
Moves: Principles, trust architecture, charters, succession.
Cadence: Retreats, letters, audits.
Stop doing: Daily tactical decisions.
Training the Skill (Drills You Can Run This Week)
Before the bullets, here’s the promise: you can train horizon switching like a sport. Small reps, clear feedback.
Five Drills:
The 15‑Minute Flow: Pick a task. Write a micro‑win. Set 15 minutes. Phone in airplane mode. Execute. Debrief: Did I stay inside the horizon?
Horizon Ladder: In one session, do 5 minutes presence (breath + micro‑task), 25 minutes execution (ship a thing), 30 minutes planning (sequence a week), 45 minutes strategy (write a thesis paragraph). Journal about the felt difference.
Context Lock: For a full day, protect the declared horizon per block. If a different‑horizon thought emerges, park it. Score yourself from 1–10 at day’s end.
Switch Cue Library: List your personal signals that a switch is needed (e.g., fidgeting, rereading, spiraling). Next time it appears, run OODA‑T.
Reciprocity Ritual: Start meetings with: “Today’s horizon is ____. Success for this block is ____.” End with: “What did we park for the other horizons?”
Misalignment Catalogue (For Teaching & Diagnosis)
We’ll describe the pattern first, then provide bullet examples you can reference.
Pattern: Misalignment is either premature abstraction (too long, too early) or premature action (too short, too shallow). Here’s a quick reference you can copy into your team wiki or client materials.
Premature Abstraction (Too Long):
You write principles when you need procedures.
You debate strategy while your QA suite is red.
You analyze reputation risk while your partner is asking for eye contact.
You “optimize for scale” while your prototype doesn’t work.
Premature Action (Too Short):
You sprint without a roadmap.
You hire without a scorecard.
You launch without a thesis.
You promise without buffers.
Cross‑Domain Examples:
Medicine: Fail to stabilize before discussing long‑term rehab. / Over‑stabilize without planning post‑acute care.
Law: Argue constitutional theory in a traffic court. / Treat a constitutional case like a parking ticket.
Engineering: Premature micro‑services. / One giant ball of mud.
Education: Endless curriculum debates. / No assessment loop.
Finance: Day‑trading retirement funds. / Never adjusting allocation after life changes.
Relationships: “Define the relationship” during a movie night. / Refusing the talk for years.
Athletics: Changing technique mid‑competition. / Never periodizing training.
The Weekly Cadence (Protect Every Horizon)
Before you build a schedule think about this idea: time starvation incentivises theft. If you don’t “feed” each time horizon on a schedule, it will hijack other blocks. Strategy thoughts will invade sprints; execution anxiety will pollute date night. Feed every horizon and they’ll respect boundaries.
Example Cadence:
Daily: Presence (micro‑wins), Execution blocks.
Weekly: 90 minutes of Planning (sequence, risk, buffers).
Monthly: 2–3 hours of Strategy (thesis update, options review).
Quarterly: Half‑day Strategy deep‑dive; review objectives.
Annually: 1–2 days Multi‑Gen (values, constitution of family/team, letters).
Guardrails:
Label your blocks with the time horizon. (e.g., Tue 9–11: Execution — Ship v1 landing page.)
Put a Parking Lot in every agenda.
Start and end with OODA‑T.
Micro‑Tools You Can Screenshot
Short, copy‑ready heuristics and checklists.
The 30‑Second Horizon Check:
What is the smallest unit of success here?
What horizon must I be in to achieve it?
What thought belongs to a different horizon and should be parked?
The Two‑Sentence Contract:
For the next ___ minutes/hours, I am operating in ___ horizon to achieve ___.
I will return to ___ horizon at ___ to address parked items.
The “Three Futures” Note (Strategy Only):
If we continue: ___.
If we change to A: ___.
If we change to B: ___.
The Presence Reset (When You Drift):
Exhale to the bottom.
Relax jaw/tongue/palms.
One next correct move.
Teaching Script (For Coaches, Leaders, Teachers)
Here’s a compact way to teach this in under five minutes before practice, class, or a meeting:
Frame: “There are five horizons. We climb up to plan; we climb down to perform.”
Name The Next Horizon: “This next block is Execution. Success is X shipped.”
Set Parking Lot: “Strategic ideas go here; we’ll address them Friday at Strategy.”
Run OODA‑T: Quick check; start timer.
Close: “What did we park? What horizon owns it?”
Assessment Prompts:
“Where did we switch horizons well?”
“Where did we stay too long?”
“What cost did we pay?”
Frequently Asked Questions (with Answers)
We’ll introduce the friction first, then the answer.
“Isn’t short‑term thinking irresponsible?”
Answer: Short‑term acting is different from short‑term planning. Acting short in a presence‑critical task is responsibility.“Won’t long‑term planning kill creativity?”
Answer: No. It protects creative blocks from interruption. You plan to protect presence and focus, not replace it.“How do I stop strategy thoughts from hijacking execution?”
Answer: Parking Lot + scheduled Strategy ritual. Attention starvation causes time hijacking.“What if everything feels urgent?”
Answer: Urgency is often mismanagement of horizons. Do a 30‑minute Planning block to redistribute work and risk.“What about emergencies?”
Answer: Emergencies force the Presence horizon. Stabilize first, then expand.