I'm just wondering, if you're a website developer, how do you go about planning to actually developing.

Most of the time, I just begin by creating a layout, then diving right into programming without any prior programming, except with really complicated websites, where I create plans of what I need, don't need, where and when on the site, then move onto more specific details, such as for the layout, the site structure, and the database tables, etc.

What steps do you (advise to) take?