What most plans are missing
A typical trading plan describes setups, entries, stops and targets. That is a strategy, not a plan for trading someone else's capital under rules.
What is missing is everything about the account: how size is derived from the current buffer, when you stop for the day, what happens after two losing days, and what you do in the awkward stretch after the target is met but the day count is not.
The clauses worth writing down
Sizing. "Risk per trade is X% of the distance to the nearest breach level, recalculated before each session." Not a fixed lot size, and not a percentage of the balance. See position sizing against a drawdown.
Daily stop. A personal limit well inside the firm's. If the firm allows 5%, stop at 2.5%. Reaching your own limit means the day is over, not that you have 2.5% left to work with.
Losing-day protocol. "After two consecutive losing days, halve size until a green day." This single clause prevents most of the escalation that ends accounts.
The reset hour. "Flat 15 minutes before the firm's daily reset." Written down, in your own timezone.
News. "No entries and no resting orders within five minutes of a high-impact release on the firm's calendar." See news trading restrictions.
Post-target conduct. "Once the profit target is met, trade minimum size until the day count is complete." See minimum trading days.
Write it before you buy
A plan written while you are 6% into a drawdown will contain clauses designed to get that money back. A plan written before the account exists will not, and that is the entire value of writing it early.
Print it. Keep it visible. The purpose is to make the decision in advance, so that the version of you in a drawdown is executing a decision rather than making one.
The clause people skip
What you do when the plan and the market disagree. The honest answer is that you follow the plan and accept the missed opportunity, because the alternative — discretionary override under pressure — is what a rules-based account punishes hardest.
If your plan needs frequent overrides, the plan is wrong. Fix it between evaluations, not during one.
Reviewing it
At the end of each evaluation, review the plan against what actually happened: which clauses you followed, which you broke, and whether breaking one caused a loss. That is a much shorter and more useful review than analysing individual trades, and it feeds directly into the journal.