Decision Making
Posted on January 27, 2021 by Gordon Fyfe, One of Thousands of Business Coaches on Noomii.
Do you have trouble making a decision? All the time? When there's an important decision to make? Every now and then? This worksheet will help.
“You cannot make progress without making decisions” –
Jim Rohn, entrepreneur, author and motivational speaker.
How many decisions does the average adult make each day?
Is the answer a few? A few hundred? A few thousand? Write down your answer then go to the end of this worksheet to see how close you are.
That answer and Jim Rohn’s quote got me thinking some more about decision making and how we all suffer from procrastination, where we put off a decision or feel that we simply cannot decide what to do. Some of us suffer more than others!
‘Can we afford it?’
‘How much longer can I stay in this job? I really need to do something about it’
‘Should I just put it on the credit card and have it now or save up and buy it later?’
‘I really need to do this, but it can wait til tomorrow.’
‘To be, or not to be? That is the question.’ Hamlet contemplates in perhaps the ultimate example of procrastination.
Decision making is a perennial human problem and we’re not getting any better at it. Grocery shopping – be it online or physically in a store – gives so much choice that it actually hinders our decision making. Known as the paradox of choice – when presented with too many choices, people will be less likely to buy – research by psychologists from Columbia and Stanford University found that where customers were offered a choice of 24 different jams only 3% of people bought a jar; however where there was a choice of just 6 jams, 30% of people bought a jar. What does that say about modern living? What do you do when you find yourself spoilt for choice? How can you improve your decision making next time you are shopping online? Not sure? Read on.
And yet we are told that even those of us who are serial procrastinators and tell everyone that we ‘never make decisions’ are actually making thousands of decisions every day. In reality we are all capable decision makers when we need to be. If we want jam on our toast we will be sure to buy a jar next time we go shopping. It’s all about focus.
So how can we ease the pain of procrastination and find ourselves not only making decisions but making better decisions when we need to?
Next time you have to make a decision and find yourself questioning yourself, deploy the 10-10-10 principle. This is a technique made famous by Warren Buffett but it can work for all, not just you billionaires out there. When faced with having to make a decision, ask yourself:
In 10 days how will I feel about my decision?
In 10 months how will I feel about my decision?
In 10 years how will I feel about my decision?
Procrastinators often focus on the here and now (the next 10 days); if you think ahead and give your decision a future-focus (the next 10 months or years) you can get a different view which can help give clarity, perspective, certainty and confidence. Give it a go – and when you make that decision, just think, as reported in Psychology Today, it will be just one of that day’s 35000 decisions.
Gordon Fyfe
