General George S. Patton’s best-known rule is usually quoted as “A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week.” In his book War As I Knew It (1947), under the heading “Don’t Delay,” it reads: “a good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan next week.”
The idea was older. In 1929 the British writer Sir Frederick Maurice praised “a reasonably good plan carried through with promptness and determination.” By 1979 an American book had turned it into everyday advice: “A good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow.”