Defining useful goals
A useful goal is one a later decision can be checked against.
Planning paradox
A plan precise enough to manage is already wrong. An institution that does not plan cannot tell whether it moved.
The future you are planning will be changed by the plan. A schedule that names every step is a claim that nothing you learn along the way will matter. A refusal to plan is a claim that you will notice, later, whether you arrived.
What survives the paradox is a small set of things that must become true, and a path you expect to revise. The plan is a tool for the next decision. It is not a picture of the last one. When the plan and the world disagree, the world is not the defect.
An institution that worships the plan will keep executing it after it has stopped being true. An institution that worships improvisation will not know which of its changes were the point. Plan the destination tightly. Hold the route loosely enough that a Tuesday can correct it.