The person who takes a thousand steps, each one in a random direction, doesn’t get as far as the person who takes twenty careful steps in the same direction.
Activity doesn’t always equal progress. The formula is: “Action + Planning = Progress.”
When we want progress and we don’t have a plan, often we try to correct by increasing our activity. But while certain kinds of activity are generally always helpful, just throwing stuff at the wall isn’t generally beneficial unless you’re deliberately doing it to experiment – and experiments require intentionality and planning!
So if you feel like you’re always going, going, going, but never getting anywhere, then the answer is probably to stop. Look around a little. The activity surge isn’t what you need; you need a plan. Calm down for a day or two, and fight the notion that a break means you’re falling behind; you can’t fall behind by stopping something that wasn’t getting you ahead.
The Opportunity Machine 