Take A Bite Tuesday 5: Strategy Wins Every Time.
You'll need to either have read the book or read this summary of Page 48 & 49:
Here are clean, concise summaries of each point, keeping the numbering, written in You 2.0:
1. The Strategic Concept (Your “Why”)
This is the big picture.The strategic concept explains why you’re doing this at all. It’s your vision, your direction of travel, and the lens through which all decisions should be made. If you don’t define this clearly, everything that follows risks becoming busy work instead of meaningful progress.
2. The Plan (A to Z, not just a list)
The plan is how you move from where you are now to where you want to be. It should clearly state your start point, your end goal, and the milestones in between. A common mistake is treating milestones as the strategy — they aren’t. Milestones are just signposts. Without clarity on how you reach them, they’re wishful thinking dressed up as planning.
3. Strategies for Each Milestone
This is where plans become real.Each milestone needs its own mini-strategy: the actions required, the time frame, how progress will be reviewed, and how success will be recognised or celebrated. Strategy lives in the detail of execution — not just in what you want to achieve, but how you will actually do it.
4. Remedy Strategies (When Things Drift)
Plans don’t fail — lack of correction does.A remedy strategy answers one simple question: What will I do if I fall behind or go off course? This might mean re-prioritising, simplifying, adjusting timelines, or pausing non-essential work. The key is to decide this before you need it, not in the heat of frustration.
Take a bite...
Right now, take a look at one of your goals, or a plan that you are already working from, and check that each of the component parts beginning page 48 (of the book) are clearly defined. Where you haven’t, write them in now.
Example Project:
Rebuilding and migrating darreninform.com and the ThinkWORKS community to the Mastermind platform (Q1 focus).
1. The Strategic Concept (The Why)
Why am I doing this?
To create a calm, coherent digital home that brings together my thinking, writing, podcasting, and community — and supports sustainable work rather than constant firefighting.
This is not about having a “better website”.It’s about reducing fragmentation, improving focus, and making it easier for the right people to engage with my work.
2. The Plan (From A to Z)
What does the journey look like?
Start Point (A):A fragmented WIX site, broken community tools, scattered content, and rising friction.
End Goal (Z):A stable, human-centred site and forum where content, conversation, and direction all live together.
Milestones along the way:
Core site pages rebuilt
Community rooms recreated
Priority content migrated
Weekly content rhythm stabilised
These milestones mark progress — but on their own, they don’t explain how they’ll be achieved.
3. Strategies for Each Milestone
How do I actually reach each step?
For example:
Milestone: Core site pages rebuilt
Strategy: Build structure first, polish later
Action: Draft Home, Start Here, ThinkWORKS Hub, Books, Contact using consistent messaging
Review: Does the site feel coherent, even if imperfect?
Milestone: Community rebuilt
Strategy: Fewer rooms, clearer purpose
Action: Create Welcome post, room descriptions, Take A Bite template
Review: Can a new visitor understand what to do in under 2 minutes?
Each milestone has:
a strategy
a set of actions
a review point
and space to adjust
4. Remedy Strategies (When Reality Intervenes)
What if I fall behind or lose momentum?
Planned remedies include:
Reducing scope (migrate less content, not more)
Pausing non-essential pages
Protecting the weekly podcast as the non-negotiable
Shifting timelines without abandoning the vision
The goal is not perfection — it’s course correction without self-judgement.
The Bite
Planning isn’t about control. It’s about thinking ahead so that when things wobble, you don’t.