In contrast the tactician is a planner. You have the ability to surgically and relentlessly drive a process to completion. The problem is that you may not possess a higher level vision.

Whether you are a strategist, tactician or both – I’ve found that strategies without tactics are dead in the water while tactics without a vision are ineffective and laborious. Both types of entrepreneurs fail to take action every day, simply because they are in dire need of what the other has.

The Strategist and Tactician Need Each Other

Based on the examples above, you may view yourself as a strategic leader (Strategist), the do-er (Tactician) who is adept in planning or both. But all too often one has a ton of ideas and no action while the other is all action and no results.

Strategy is essential. However, without tactical planning an idea will always be … well, an ‘idea’ and nothing more.

In comparison, a doer without a definite vision will productively produce nothing for a very long time. This is why the strategist needs a solid tactical process to move from idea to creation and the tactician needs to dig him or herself out of the details and seek higher ground.

Cure Insanity and Get Things Done

Life hacking productivity tools are everywhere these days. But, online productivity tools and apps are helpful only when you recognize the processes and value behind them. If not, they are seemingly useless time wasters.

I recently stumbled upon David Allen’s book “Getting Things Done.” Allen, a productivity consultant, is the creator of, Getting Things Done (GTD), an organizational method based in easy to understand action steps.

Allen’s GTD method rests on the principle that a person needs to move tasks out of the mind by recording them externally. That way, the mind is freed from the job of remembering everything that needs to be done, and can concentrate on actually performing those tasks.”

Whether you prefer software (Thinking Rock) or a pen and pad, here are five basic GTD (modified) steps to help marry strategy with tactics and get things done.

• Collect: Dump all your thoughts on a sheet of paper (or download the free software).
• Process: For each thought, decide what you want to do with them:Someday/Maybe list, Throw it away, Keep it as reference, Store it as a Goal, Put it on your Do ASAP list, Delegate it, Schedule it, or Mark it as done.
• Organize: Start with the ‘Do ASAP list’ and plan your first project. Decide what you need in terms of resources, people and finances to complete the task. Don’t digress with thoughts of what you can’t do or don’t have; focus on needs and solutions.
• Review: Review what you scribbled in your notepad and focus on the next and most important step, #5.
• Do: Assess what you can personally do to get the project started (no matter how small the contribution may seem). Next, actively research and locate people that have the skill sets you need.

Lastly, get creative and brainstorm how you can fund big ideas with lean pockets. Most importantly, execute and carry the plan forth. In the last step, the ‘do’ stage, you will run into contradictions, challenges and setbacks. Keep moving forward despite all of these things.

The Cure for Entrepreneurial Insanity

The cure for business insanity is simple. Assess where you are, identify the results you want, study those that have mastery over their results and apply common principals to produce results. Most importantly, do something different and then expect results.

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