I agree Fuji, as I mentioned above (somewhere) sufficient planning has the single biggest affect on the outcome of a flight. It doesn't seem to be given the weight it should.
On a side note, I'm doing an instructor course at the moment and am learning that there are ways that I can make my life easier. The accent is on the broad view. Planning is the broad view, the big picture which is what situational awareness is too. Technique minutia (DR or GPS) are more about the narrow view. From the discussion we've had during the course so far (it is early days!), inappropriate reliance on the narrow view seems to be the thing that lands people in hock.