Probably Just Yes
I want to have time to relax every day. And I want to enjoy it unburdened with leftover work or errands. So I am using this simple mechanism to avoid horrendous time-wasting, energy-draining stupid little decisions.
Step 1: is the decision connected with your addictions? Example: are you thinking about smoking a cigarette? Then the answer is don’t do it. How? Well, for this specific example, I’ve heard great things about this book.
Step 2: is it life-changing decision? Example: investing large sums of money. Here, you should consider using some help, like SWOT analysis, expert advisor, etc. And definitely SLEEP ON IT! Research shows we make poor decisions when we are tired.
Step 3: for all the other decisions: think about what you should do. Don’t get stuck here — if you are unsure, just go for it! Why? There are 3 possible outcomes:
- you do something good
- your action has no effect whatsoever (this happens far more than we think, so this is why lingering on making not-so-important decisions is a waste of time)
- you are going to make a mistake. But — and this is paramount — next time that you think about doing a similar thing, you will know better. At the beginning of step 3, right at that thinking part, you will decide not to do it.
We make hundreds or even thousands of decisions daily. Most of those are decisions from step 3, like whether we should send that email or whether we should go out. This causes serious mental fatigue. This causes cognitive burnout. And this is why you must have some mechanism ready in place to make a choice.
Happy deciding!
