I find the topic of decisions making to be a fascinating one.
In the past few years, I wrote about it several times and this is the post I keep returning as the ‘checklist’.
However, it’s great to have quick and simple rules that you can use.
Three rules to improve your decisions (that I ‘borrowed’ from @naval):
- If you can’t decide, the answer is no – It might be a bit tricky in cases where you don’t have a Yes/No decision. However, the idea (IMHO) is that you should have a hunch on what will be the right path and if you can’t feel it, try to base the decision on the best data you can find.
- If two equally difficult paths, choose the one more painful in the short term (pain avoidance is creating an illusion of equality) – This is a clever one, as it’s pointing you in the direction of
‘Easy choices → Hard life. Hard choices → Easy life’.
I’m not sure, this rule will be valid in all cases, but even if it’s holding for 80% it’s a good one to remember.
- Choose the path that leaves you calmer in the long term – Smart way to validate which is the better decision for a given challenge.
Also, it’s good to remember that
“It’s extremely hard to make good decisions in a poor environment.”
So do your best to improve the environment (e.g. company, friends) before taking important decisions.
The original tweet:
Have a great weekend.
Ido Green 