A carpenter’s pencil line is meant to be cut away. Plans are allowed to disappear into the final thing.

A guide exists to be used up. The pencil mark does its whole job before the cut and then stops existing, which is the correct outcome rather than a loss. People get attached to plans, outlines and sketches as though they should still be visible at the end, and that attachment keeps a plan rigid when it should have been consumed.

Make a plan for your next project and then let yourself violate it where the work demands. Keep the plan where you can see what it was for rather than treating it as a contract. At the end, judge the thing, not the match to the outline.