Formula for successful next steps

I read a quote from David Allen in Michael Bungay Stanier's Do More Great Work shortly before my run this morning, which goes "You can't do a project. You can only do the next step."

I don't know about you, but I have lots of ideas, quite a few of them that I think are pretty good. I have most of them scribbled down in a book or on 3x5 cards.

For most of them, though, I don't have a clear next step. That's why they are still just ideas or projects that I think would be great to do.

If I had clarified a next step for each of those ideas or projects, it would look very different, or at least for the ones that I think are most important to me right now.

There were also some statistics in the book about the likelihood of you reaching a goal that you set yourself:

• 10 percent if you hear an idea
• 25 percent if you decide to do it
• 40 percent if you decide when you're going to do it
• 50 percent if you plan how you're going to do it
• 65 percent if you tell someone you're going to do it
• 95 percent if you set up a time to report back that person on how you did.

Who will hold you accountable for your next step?