Kevin owned a residential cleaning company, and he had a reputation for doing an excellent job while getting things done fast.

The problem was, Kevin's speed was destroying his business from the inside.
Whenever something needed to happen, Kevin would immediately dive in and start doing.

Every problem got immediate action, but nothing ever got better. His team was constantly confused about priorities because Kevin would start three new initiatives in a week, then abandon them when the next crisis hit.

Last month, Kevin's biggest corporate client threatened to cancel their contract because the service had become inconsistent. Kevin's immediate response was to personally start cleaning their buildings himself to "fix it" working 16-hour days while his actual business fell apart around him.

His operations manager finally pulled him aside and said, "Kevin, you're working harder than anyone I know, but you're making everything worse. Every time you jump in to fix something, you create two new problems."

Kevin told me he felt like he was constantly moving, but somehow everything was getting messier instead of better.

What Kevin didn't realize was that his brain was skipping two critical steps before taking action, and without those steps, even hard work just creates more chaos.

After learning to pause and use these two thinking skills together before diving into action, Kevin transformed from a frantic doer into an effective leader.
His business is now running smoother than ever, and Kevin works less than he has ever has.


Thinking Skills
While you are doing any task, you, without even realizing it, are using your 28 thinking skills.
When the thinking skills you need to use are strong, doing the task happens easily.
If the thinking skill you need to use is weak, doing the task is a challenge.
The struggle that Kevin had came from a weak thinking skill of categorization and making a plan and how these two work together.

Categorizations and Having a Need to Make a Plan
Most people think taking action fast is the key to success.
And it’s true, money loves speed.
We want to be taking action and moving forward… well, that’s if we’re moving forward.

We want to be using the thinking skill of categorization and having a need to make a plan, so that we can actually make progress.

Categorization is being able to organize items or information into groups, so it’s helpful for your goal.
(We spoke about this in episode 528)

Having a need to make a plan is having the desire to actually make the plan.
(We spoke about this in episode 537)


When these two thinking skills, categorization and need for a plan, work together, you end up working smarter, not harder.

Here’s how:
Categorization helps you see what kind of problem you’re dealing with.
It’s like giving your brain a filing cabinet instead of a junk drawer.
When something goes wrong, most people’s brains just see a big, messy “problem.”

But when your categorization skill is strong, your brain instantly sorts it:
“Okay, this is a client issue.”
“This is an operations breakdown.”
“This is a personal time management thing.”

This allows your brain to quickly pull out the right information from that “filing cabinet”

Part of categorization is also being able to see the bigger category, the bigger picture.
You want your brain to take a step back and see “What is actually going on here?”

This way, you don’t take action on one detail, making you have to redo the work once you get more information.


The need for a plan helps you decide what to do with that information before you start doing it.

Once your brain sorts the problem into the right category, the next question becomes:
“Okay, now what? What’s the plan of action?” That’s having a need to make a plan.


When having a need to make a plan is weak, you just react.
You start cleaning the mess, answering the email, jumping into the task without figuring out if that’s actually the best move.


Kevin’s brain was great at seeing something that needed attention and instantly reacting.

But without first categorizing the type of problem, seeing the bigger picture or having the internal drive to pause and plan, he was mixing everything together: urgent tasks, important goals, random ideas.

So every time he tried to fix something, he ended up creating confusion because the action didn’t fit the real problem.

Here are 4 exercises you can do to help you improve categorizations with planning:

1) Write out each task you have this week on a separate sticky note or index card.
Then sort them by category.
Once they're in categories, plan 3 tasks for each day.

2) Get practice of categorizations and planning with meal prep.

Open your fridge/pantry and look at your food. Categorize what you have by food group. Proteins, carbs, vegetables etc.
Then, using this information, plan food for the week ahead.


3) At the end of the day, take a few minutes to journal from a big picture standpoint.
What actions did I take?
How’s it part of the bigger picture?
How’s it helping me not just now but for the future?


4) Next time you do quarterly planning (and if you haven’t done it if Q1 of 2026 yet, now’s the perfect time!), don’t start by thinking about what goals you want to work on.
Start by thinking of 3 categories, 3 areas of your life you want to improve.
?Health? Relationships? Branding? Leadership? What’s it for you.

Then, for each category, think of 1 goal you want to work on.

Finally, create a plan for that goal.


Over time, your brain learns to categorize and plan together, and you end up working more efficiently.


Cheers to Peak Brain Performance!
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