I’m pretty indecisive and have a hard time choosing which course of action to take. E.g. should I go to this event, how much should I bid for this item, what hotel should I stay at, should I quit my job etc. But unfortunately I often end up not being able to decide and just doing nothing as a result. This isn’t ideal – doing nothing usually isn’t the course of action I’m leaning towards most with most tricky decisions.
Choose a default, then stick with it (if you don’t change your mind)
My main trick is that I decide on a default course of action – whatever course of action I’m leaning towards most at the time – and then commit to executing it if I don’t change my mind by the end of the day (or longer for more important decisions). Then I spend some time thinking about it before my deadline. Essentially this lets me timebox my decision, and redirect the status quo bias to whatever course of action I currently prefer.
Don’t change plans mid-execution
An important part of this is that I avoid reconsidering my decision while I’m in the process of implementing it if I don’t learn any new information in the process. Once I’ve committed to doing the thing, I sit down and execute it without reconsidering mid-process. Otherwise I end up getting analysis paralysis while I’m in the middle of entering my credit card details and taking another hour to decide if I really want to do this, which leads to this system not working.
Examples
- Not sure what model of thing to buy? Write down your current favorite and buy it tomorrow if you don’t change your mind.
- Unsure if you should go to a social event? Default to going to it at 5PM if you don’t change your mind.
Make reversible decisions
One problem with that trick is that it often involves making a decision that’s hard to change afterwards. I really love situations where I can pick a new status quo without ever committing to it. I book a lot of refundable flights and hotel stays so that I can make the default course of action taking a trip, without actually committing to it.
Refundable bookings (and other similar situations) lets me choose a new status quo without locking anything in. If I’m 70% sure I want to go to a conference I can book refundable flights/hotels/tickets now and make it so going is the status quo and I need to actively expend effort to not go.
Examples
Here are some examples of how you could apply this:
- Not sure if a blog post is good enough to publish? Schedule it to be published in a few days, and cancel it if you change your mind.
- Nervous about emailing someone? Schedule it to be sent (Gmail supports scheduling emails now btw), and cancel it if you change your mind.
- Not sure if you should cancel something? Set it to be cancelled at the end of term, and undo that if you change your mind.
