what to do next?

i had a productive day today on both the planning and accomplishment fronts. a large part of this whole phd thing is the organization and planning of your next steps. it is so easy to get caught up in what you are currently working on and forget to map out what you will do once you've finished the task at hand. it's obvious that planning along the way makes for maximum utilization of one's time, but it is also extremely difficult to know what you need to do next. what will be most beneficial? what is the missing piece in my research puzzle? what won't take me another 5 years to do/prove/implement?........................... (and my favorite) where am i going with this???

i believe it's safe to say that the point at which you know you are done with your phd is the moment when you no longer have to convince yourself that you know what you are doing.