Plan Your Work and Work Your Plan
Start every day with a written target list, then hunt it down.
- Difficulty
- Starter
- Time to result
- ~days to results
- Steps
- 4
- Confidence
- 90%
Adam Posner learned this mantra from his recruiting mentor Tom Hall and repeats it every single day before his computer turns on. The method is deliberately blunt: decide the list of things you will accomplish before the day starts, then execute against that list rather than against whatever comes at you. Posner builds in an explicit tolerance — hitting 75-80% of the planned items counts as a successful, on-target day, because life throws curveballs that must be handled. The power is not in the sophistication of the plan but in the ritual of making one before any input arrives. It is the operating discipline that let him go from a salaried marketer to a commission recruiter who had to generate his own structure.
Origin
Posner pivoted into recruiting at 35 with no experience and was mentored by Tom Hall at Onward Search, who taught him 'the art and science of recruiting.' The single most valuable thing Hall gave him was this mantra, which Posner now repeats before every phone call and every workday.
Core principles
- 01The plan is made before the tools turn on, not in reaction to the inbox.
- 02A day is successful if 75-80% of the planned list gets done — not 100%.
- 03Curveballs are expected and absorbed, not treated as plan failure.
- 04Repetition of the mantra is the mechanism; it converts intent into a ritual.
How to run it
- 1
Plan before the machine turns on
Before the computer boots, before the first call, write the list of things you intend to accomplish today.
Pro tip Make it a physical ritual tied to a fixed trigger so it can't be skipped.
- 2
Work the plan, not the inbox
Execute the list in order. Incoming requests get triaged against the plan rather than automatically displacing it.
Watch out The plan dies the moment you let arriving messages define the next action.
- 3
Absorb the curveballs
Accept that life throws things at you that must be handled. Handle them, then return to the list.
- 4
Score at 75-80%
If you hit roughly three-quarters of what you set out to do, you had a successful day and you are on target. Roll the rest forward.
Pro tip A 100% completion rate usually means the plan was too small, not that the day was great.
In the wild
Every day, before his computer turns on, before he makes a phone call, before he does anything, Posner repeats the mantra and goes into the day with a list of things he is going to accomplish. Curveballs come; he handles them and returns to the list.
→ He judges the day successful at 75-80% list completion and reports staying consistently 'on plan and on target' — the discipline that carried him from a rookie recruiter at 35 to running his own firm.
Common mistakes
Building the plan after the day starts
Once email, Slack and calls are open, the plan is written in reaction to other people's priorities. The whole mechanism depends on the list existing before any input arrives.
Treating anything under 100% as failure
Posner's explicit threshold is 75-80%. Demanding perfection makes people abandon planning entirely the first time a curveball lands.
Is it for you?
Best for
Commission-based salespeople, recruiters, and solo operators with no manager setting their day.
Not ideal for
Purely reactive support roles where the queue genuinely IS the job.
From the transcript
“I repeat this mantra Hala every single day before my computer turns on, before I make a phone call, before I do anything — plan…”
“If I could hit 75, 80 of the things that I meant to go out for the day, I know I have a successful day…”
From the episode
Adam Posner: Land The Job
Adam Posner