TLDR
Planning takes extra time, but it also helps you get the job done faster overall.
It seems to be true in any industry, not just Tech. I myself have learned it long before switching to software development -- it was a part of my academic writing course as a political science student. These were my takeaways from it:
- A study has been conducted among students and the resulting data backed the theory that planned work is faster overall.
- The process of how to actually do the planning academic writing looks pretty much to something we all do -- identify the scope and break them down to smaller tasks.
But to me planning also has a magical 🧙♂️ effect -- it makes things doable despite seeming too hard or tedious in the beginning. Time and again have I caught myself on the thought that I would never get done with learning some framework or completing a personal project if I hadn't added it to my todo list. It's just magic, I cant explain how it works exactly, but it does for me.
So just go ahead and try it for yourself -- pick a todo list software, break down a goal you have into a checklist and see if that works for you as well.
P.S. I myself keep my tasks and projects in Google Keep, while all learning objectives are tracked in Zealoq.