The seventh of the seven biggest time wasters is indecision or poor decision making. When a situation that requires a decision comes up – if it’s timely and you have the necessary information – go ahead and make the decision. If not, then decide when you will make the decision.
There is something about setting it aside temporarily, to give you a little break, that makes your life easier. 80% of decisions should be made as soon as they arise, 15% can be made later and about 5% aren’t even worth thinking about so you don’t even need to make them at all. You leave them alone.
If you have the information you need to make the decision, make it. Don’t waste time or your credibility will suffer. If people know you have the information, and you’re not making a decision, they will begin to see you as indecisive or incompetent. Your credibility will drop because of you indecisiveness.
There are really only four types of decisions. 1) There are decisions that you must make. 2) There are decisions that other people can make. You could make them but other people can make them too. 3) There are decisions that you cannot afford to make at this time because there’s too much at risk, or you’re lacking information about them. And 4) there’s the decision you can’t afford to wait on because delay could cause significant failure, problems, lost opportunities, and so on.
So make them when you can make them; let them go when you can’t. And if you can’t make the decision at this time, then set a deadline for when you are going to make the decision. Don’t worry it to death, but make it when you can make it, and move forward.