Make Decisions

For better or for worse, decisions will change your life. Here is some advice from someone who has tended to struggle with decision-making.

Spend time on the decisions that matter.

Things like:

• what you believe

• what your values are

• what your ideal day would look like (e.g. what kind of activities do you perform?)

Imagine yourself on your deathbed.

What advice would you give yourself? What do you feel proud or ashamed of? What do you wish you had or had not done?

Make as many decisions in advance as you can.

Have morning and evening routines so you don't need to think about what to do

Pre-decide things like what to wear, what to eat etc.

Plan your day/week/month/year in advance.

• set goals

• break them down into milestones and smaller goals

Outsource decisions

These are the kind of decisions I do not enjoy:

• Which duvet cover should I get?

• What dish should I order?

• What laptop should I buy?

Life's too short and I don't like to use up brain space for these kind of things - I much prefer to get someone else to make these decisions.

Have criteria for decisions

Let's take the above examples:

• which duvet cover?

It can be any colour or pattern except for x or y.

• which dish should I order?

Anything except x ingredients

• what laptop should I buy?

It has to have x, y and z features, but anything else doesn't matter".

Finally:

• Once you make a decision, celebrate and don't think about it anymore.

• Read 'Thinking, Fast and Slow' by Daniel Kahneman to find out how your brain makes decisions (you'll be surprised)

• Read anything this guy has to say about decision-making.