I came across an interesting piece today in the Smarter Living column in the New York Times today, Micro-Progress and the Magic of Just Getting Started by Tim Herrera. Essentially, the recommendation is get started and keep moving with the work that you have.
I'm of two minds on this one. On the one hand, this makes a lot of sense. And the analogy of Newton's First Law of motion is apt: I'm more likely to keep going, now that I have started. (And the opposite: It is hard to get started because ... I haven't started.)
On the other hand, particularly for larger efforts, we tend to get started with anything, rather than the next right thing. And this "anything" often causes problems later on because we get led down the wrong path or we didn't have full preparations to actually do that work.
Maybe redefining "getting started" will be helpful too. For major efforts, getting started might look like making small experiments, or describing a picture of what "done" looks like. Quite often, I have seen people get started without a plan, in the belief that planning isn't part of the work. But if there isn't a plan, how do I know if I have gotten where I want to be?