A little planning can save you a lot of doing
Hospitality is very good at doing.There’s always something that needs doing, and usually it needs doing NOW! A problem appears, someone needs an answer, a guest needs something, the rota needs sorting, the next service is coming.So we get very good at jumping straight in.
But one of the things I’ve noticed again and again when working with hospitality leaders is that sometimes we’re too quick to start doing.
We skip the planning bit because it feels like we don’t have time for it. And then we spend much longer fixing, redoing, chasing or untangling something that could have been avoided with a little more thought at the beginning.
That’s where the 1:4 ratio comes in.
The idea is simple: allow one part of planning for four parts for execution. 25% of the time it takes for you to deliver something should be spent planning it.
And what I love about this tool is that it works at almost any scale.
For a big, complex project, spending proper time upfront working out what you’re trying to achieve, what needs to happen, who needs to be involved and what might get in the way can save hours of wasted effort later.
It works for planning your week, too. Taking a little time to look ahead, decide what really matters and work out when you’re going to do it can stop your week becoming one long reaction to whatever lands in front of you.
But it also works in the tiniest moments; like a five-minute phone call.
How often do you pick up the phone, launch straight into the conversation and only afterwards realise you didn’t actually ask the thing you needed to ask? Or have a quick conversation with someone and come away thinking, “That wasn’t quite what I needed.”
So before you have these conversations take ¼ of the time planning: what do i want to get our of this?
It sounds almost too simple. But that little pause creates clarity before you start spending time and energy.
And that’s why I like the 1:4 Ratio. It isn’t about becoming someone who spends all their time planning. It’s about recognising that the amount of planning you need should match the size of the task. Sometimes a few days. Sometimes it’s 30 seconds.
Try it this week
Before you start three different things this week, stop and plan first. Choose something big, something you need to get done this week and one tiny conversation. Notice what happens when you give yourself a little planning time before you start doing
