You’ve accomplished your daily tasks, you’ve aced the day and you’re one more step closer to your ambitious goal. Your excitement has risen. All is well. Okay…now stop daydreaming and snap back to reality. Because no work is done. You are the same piece of coal you were yesterday. Not just yesterday, you’ve been the same as long as you can remember. But fear not, fret not, I’m here to tell you about the process of accurate decision-making — a process and the steps you can go through from ruminating over an idea to the actual reward in taking on those challenging choices and sticking with the program. Want to find out more? Read on for Decisions, Decisions! — 4 Steps to Easier Decision-Making!
1. You Need a Notebook
First things first, you need a journal, a pen, (or a simple smartphone text app) and yourself. Everybody has a surge of emotion when riding the crest of a great idea, but writing the idea down helps you to remember and visualise it.
Before going to bed, write what goes through your mind, even if you are thinking why Julia hasn’t responded to your text, yet. Write everything down. Recording your thoughts is the first step toward decluttering your brain, which frees up energy to think.
2. Importance of Timing
Results from a parole experiment made in an Israeli jail shows that if you’re a prisoner, then the likelihood of your release is remarkably higher at the start of the day. It decreases to near zero towards the end of every section of the day and spikes back up after a meal break. Interesting, isn’t it?
A hungry belly is a liability when it comes to unexamined choices. Food is crucial to curb your mental fatigue. A breakfast with protein and fats primes your brain for the much needed contemplation about the information you’ve written the night before.
Keep Fit Kingdom Recommended: Feel-good Jazz Music…
In the early morning, after you’re wrestled with your sleep inertia, had your breakfast, brewed a cup of coffee, and hit those feel-good jazz beats on your playlist, you’re ready to put your thinking cap on.
3. Prioritizing Your Needs
Thinking about one problem while trying to tackle others will fluff your efforts. Multitasking is your enemy. Be mindful of what you are dealing with. A couple of ways to narrow down your to-do list are:
- Only do chores that are the most necessary and leave the rest until after you’ve made progress on your main work or high priority tasks. The confidence you get from that will give you the correct perspective and ample energy to do your chores!
- Trivialize unimportant needs and decisions that you have an abundance of time to deal with.
4. Narrow Down Your Options
It’s easier to choose between a chilli sauce and a tomato sauce than choosing between three different plant-based milks. Studies suggest that the more options are on the table, the more difficult it is to decide. Having finite, yet reasonable options can help you rationalise and streamline your decision-making process.
All of your choices should be directed towards the same goal. To rank your best pick you should not have to look so far, but consider time and the person you’re becoming in the process. Is it worth your time and energy? Do you have the grit and resilience to go down that road? Only you have the answer to that. Ruth Chang’s ‘look-into-yourself’ approach will aid you in more clearly determining your path.
