Having regular time which is explicitly for planning, not working, is vital. Daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly seems to work pretty well. Daily—what are my most important tasks? Weekly—how did the last week go? What are my critical projects/tasks for next week? And so forth. That’s one of the simple-but-massively-effective insights of things like GTD, even though I disagree with their tactics—regularly spend time explicitly planning rather than working.
Having regular time which is explicitly for planning, not working, is vital. Daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly seems to work pretty well. Daily—what are my most important tasks? Weekly—how did the last week go? What are my critical projects/tasks for next week? And so forth. That’s one of the simple-but-massively-effective insights of things like GTD, even though I disagree with their tactics—regularly spend time explicitly planning rather than working.