Whatever Abraham Lincoln actually said, the details appear to have been lost in time:
"If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I'd spend six sharpening my axe."
That was a reasonable size tree, but the large west coast Sequoias needed a bit more - a 3 or 5 man team might take 2-3 weeks per tree.....lots of time to sharpen both axes and the saw.
https://www.quora.com/During-the-1800s-how-many-men-did-it-take-to-cut-down-a-redwood-tree-in-California-Did-they-use-axes-or-two-man-saws
Maybe the trees have been getting smaller (you know what I mean, individual trees get larger, but the average size has gone down)
“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”
"If I had five minutes to chop down a tree, I'd spend the first three sharpening my axe"....Come on! I reckon this is by someone using a chainsaw not an axe!
Regardless, the message is clear, planning is good before action.
However, the English planning system has been a mess for all of the last 20 years that I have worked with it.
The London Borough of Waltham Forest has a validation list for planning applications. 51 pages! Good to read that "The Council will take a
flexible and pragmatic approach in the interpretation of this document". whilst they spend your money demanding all sorts of consultancy reports.
Many council's have a department called "development control" as if they didn't want any "development" and it had to be "controlled". Of course, there have to be specifications and rules, but why not turn it around, let's have "making development happen" departments!