Decisions affect your life and happen on a daily basis. Learn how to make the best ones possible in order to achieve stellar results.
This model works wonders. It is dead simple but can speed up the decision-making process significantly and help you land in the right spot.
This is the most important step. Make sure you put together a well-posed decision problem and that it is the RIGHT problem to solve. Example: “Which gym should I join?” vs. “How might I improve my health?”
One by one, go through your objectives. Ask the question, what do we want from this? Then ask, why? You might be surprised at what you discover.
This part is so important. You will only make a decision as good as your best alternative. Take time to come up with a number of alternatives.
Consequences. On a spreadsheet, map out your objectives in the column on the left with all your alternatives along the top and then weight them. Then go through each alternative and score it 1–3 based on how well it meets each objective. This will give you a pretty good indicator which direction to go.
You should have a pretty good idea by now which direction to go, but it is good to look at the tradeoffs you will need to make for any alternatives that are close.
This is a great model to help you make better decisions but it isn’t natural. With focused practice it will become second nature to you. Practice, practice, practice.
How often have you been in a situation where people rushed to solve a problem, only to find out it was the wrong one? This is a common decision trap that happens too often. Below are a few common traps we all fall into. Beware.
We all look at the world through different perspectives (frames). The more you can see the world from others’ perspectives, the better off you will be.
This isn’t easy but it can be done with some practice. Take a hard topic that you don’t agree with and give yourself permission to see it from an opposing perspective. The more angles you can see it from, the more informed you will be to make a better decision.
There are two types of thinking: system l and system 2. Our minds generally default to system l because it is faster and simpler. This can be dangerous if we always default to system l for tough decisions. The two best ways to battle this are to be aware of the various biases and to follow a structured problem-solving method.
