Insights from Amazon execs, maze experts, instructional designers, and psychological researchers all demonstrate that planning backwards is the best way to move forwards.
Photo by 愚木混株 cdd20 on Unsplash
In a previous post, Five Reasons Why Graduate Students Struggle to Stay Motivated, reason #4 was “we aren’t sure how to move toward our goals.” I wrote that the solution to this problem is self-imposed structure. This post will explain one great way to do that: backwards planning.
What Is Backwards Planning?
To understand backwards planning, imagine you are having company over for dinner tomorrow. You need to get from nothing in the fridge to a fully prepared meal in about 24 hours. You could start by creating a shopping list, looking through recipe sites for ideas, then shopping, and finally preparing and serving the food. That’s forwards planning. To plan backwards, you would first envision the completed meal. What will you serve? What will the table look like? Then you work backwards.
Once you decide on the theme and food, you then know what recipes to look for. The recipes will tell you when you’ll need to start cooking. Then you know whether you need to go to the grocery today or whether that trip can wait for tomorrow. The cooking times of each item tell you when to start preparing. Whether you are using paper plates or china and candles tells you where the setup fits in. In situations like this, with complex and interdependent steps, planning backwards makes preparation easier.
Planning Backwards for Academic Projects
You can probably already see how the backwards planning approach would work with academics. If you have a research paper due at the end of the semester, start by putting that date on your calendar, and envision what the final project will look like. Number and kind of sources? Independent research required? Length? Format? Audience? Then work backwards.
If the final draft must be completed by December 12, then a rough draft should be completed by let’s say December 5. That means that you need to have an outline by November 30 . . . and so on. All the way until September 30, which is when you need to decide on a research question. And that means that you need to be doing some general reading and research . . . tomorrow.
Advantages of Backwards Planning
Starting with the finished product and planning backwards has three distinct advantages.
Motivation
When you plan backwards, the first step is to visualize the result. This allows you to “see” the project as completed, which provides motivation to move forward and may even lead to a better finished product (Park, Lu, and Hedgcock, 2017). A 2021 article in Harvard Business Review describes how Amazon used an approach called “working backwards” to develop such popular breakthrough products as Alexa and Kindle. Rather than jump right into coding, the company required teams to spend significant time envisioning a finished product that would attract customers.
Clarity
Because backwards planning starts with the end goal, it limits the choices for the possible steps. Think of the dinner party example. Starting at the beginning of the process leaves you with unlimited menu options, so you could be searching for hours for the perfect recipe. Starting with the finished dinner helps you see exactly what recipes you need to look for. Then you know what ingredients you need to buy, and how long the process will take.
In a way, it is like starting at the end of a maze. Working from the “exit,” you can see the dead ends more easily, and therefore more quickly find the right path. (That is, of course, unless your maze was constructed by an expert who kept this fact in mind and built in lots of loops, breaks, and dead ends from both directions.)
Photo by Benjamin Elliott on Unsplash
Instructional designers use backwards planning as well. The foundational instructional design framework ADDIE (analyze, design, develop, implement, evaluate) begins with the designer considering the learners and what the instruction is supposed to accomplish. Only then can the process of design and development begin.
Reduced Stress
The greater clarity provided by backwards planning can make managing your project – whether it is an e-reader, a dinner party, or a dissertation – much less stressful.
Park, Lu, and Hedgcock (2017) found that people who planned backwards rather than forwards felt less time pressure. They speculate that this is accomplished when people understand their goals and have a clear timeline for each step.
Should You Always Plan Backwards?
Is backwards planning always better than forwards planning? No. Park, Lu, and Hedgcock (2017) found that the greatest benefits of backwards planning come not for simple things like setting up a dinner date or studying for a quiz, but rather for complex projects with interdependent steps. Such as, perhaps, completing graduate school?
Need some help getting organized? Success coaching can bring structure, peace, and progress to your grad school journey. Click the button below to set up a free consultation and find out more.
References
Park, Jooyoung, Fang-Chi Lu, and William M. Hedgcock. “Relative Effects of Forward and Backward Planning on Goal Pursuit.” Psychological Science 28, no. 11 (November 1, 2017): 1620–30. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797617715510.
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