THE ANTI-PLAN: ACHIEVE MORE BY DOING LESS IN 2026

​Last week, we talked about the seven founder delusions that quietly sabotage annual planning... those mental traps that make plans look great on paper but impossible to execute.

This week, we’re zooming in on the operational trap behind almost every failed plan: complexity.

Most business owners walk into planning season with one instinct: add more. More goals. More initiatives. More systems. More projects.

And every year, the plan gets heavier… while the team gets slower.

The truth? Complexity (not lack of vision) is the real enemy of execution.

Complexity slows decisions, blurs priorities, exhausts your team, and drains momentum.

So instead of traditional planning, this week’s article introduces something far more powerful:

The Anti-Planning Method: subtraction as strategy.

This approach gives you permission to stop doing the things that drain ROI instead of adding more work your team can’t carry.

Inside the article, I walk through five simple tests to help you identify what needs to go:

The Identity Test

Ask: “If I weren’t already doing this, would I start it today?” If not, why is it still in your business?

The Excuses Test

Projects that have been “almost ready” or “about to start” for 6–12 months tell you something: they’re either unimportant (kill them) or they matter but intimidate you (prioritize them).

The “Fix It Later” Test

Anything you’ve put off fixing is likely hurting the business today. This test forces you to confront what you’ve normalized and what’s actually holding growth back.

The Impact–Competency Matrix

Plot every initiative by impact and competency to decide: Do it, simplify it, resource it properly, or kill it altogether.

The Business Inventory

Walk through your Income Statement, Balance Sheet, operations, and even your calendar. Label everything Keep / Evaluate / Kill to expose hidden sources of complexity.

THE ONE-PAGE ANTI-PLAN

Then, take everything you learn and condense it into a simple, powerful one-page Anti-Plan:

1. 3 things we will STOP
2. 3 things we will SIMPLIFY
3. 3 things we will PROTECT
4. 1 thing we will PURSUE with focus

If your plan doesn’t fit on a single page, your team won’t execute it.

The Anti-Plan removes the noise so you can finally execute what matters most. It’s the highest-leverage move you can make heading into 2026.

​Read the article >​
​Watch the video >​

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Thanks for reading–see you next week,

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