How to Handle the Three Kinds of Decisions You’ll Face

Idea

I find most decisions can be put into one of three categories:

1. Important decisions where there is clearly a “right thing to do” and an obvious answer. While big, they’re easy to make.
2. Small decisions that recur often (frequent things like what to eat for lunch, what to wear in the morning). Because the human brain can only make so many decisions before getting “decision fatigue”, you want to regularize those decisions to get them out of the way.
3. Decisions in the middle, which are episodic and where the choice is complicated. Often, these kinds of decisions appear to be binary, the classic “either/or” choice. These can be the ones that cause the greatest career angst.

For this third category of decisions, one important thing is that you do decide. In fact, doing nothing in these circumstances is often a decision in itself! Right or wrong, make sure you learn from that decision.

In making these kinds of decisions, be guided by alignment with the mission and your values, and then doing what you perceive to be “the right thing”.

And when you run into the “either/or” choice, recognize that this is almost always a false choice. Instead, challenge yourself and the group to find the “third way” – one in which you combine elements of the existing options to create a new superior option. And as you do so, keep everyone focused on a common goal and aligned with the core mission.

Example

I often struggled with small decisions that happened every day until I put some rules in place for myself. When it comes to food, I’ve come up with three “go to” choices for breakfast that are super healthy and easily accessible (eggs, peanut butter on wheat toast, oatmeal/porridge).

On the interpersonal side, I’ve also made a few “rules”:

• Always say hello to people when I pass them in the hall even if I don’t know who they are.
• Do the favor of telling someone if they have the equivalent of spinach in their teeth (discreetly of course).
• Thank people who do those “invisible jobs” that are under-recognized (like the person who cleans the bathroom every day at the office).

The way you handle those small recurring decisions plays a big role in determining who you really are and how you show up. Of course, those big decisions matter a lot but they are much fewer and farther between.

For those either/or decisions, I’ve done the following: first ask “what’s our common goal?” and, once we’ve established that, move on to “let’s challenge ourselves to come up with that ‘third way’ where we can achieve our common goal”.

Getting clear on what we’re trying to achieve and creating a third better option makes an easier and better decision. Remember: one option is an option; two options is a dilemma; three options is a choice.

Action

Be conscious today of the decisions that come up, what category they’re in, and how you’re making those decisions.

• Regularize as many of your small and recurring decisions as possible by putting in some rules for them so they take up as little as possible of your mind space while still delivering results that you are happy with.
• Leave your best mental energy for making the tricky and important decisions.
• In making those difficult decisions, identify the common goal or mission that will help you guide people to find that “third way” on those tricky binary decisions where no one likes the either/or choice.