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Here's a theme that's come up repeatedly as I continue to
build my personal productivity practice: The value of being bold in my decision making.
I bring this up because my default behavior is to analyze (OK,
agonize) far too much before making decisions, esp. ones where it's not clear the best path, or what the outcome might be. Brian Tracy says it best in
Time Power: A Proven System for Getting More Done in Less Time Than You Ever Thought Possible
:
Decision making requires courage. This is because every decision involves a certain amount of uncertainty. With every decision there is the possibility of failure. But it is not possible for a person to advance in life unless he is willing to make decisions, with no guarantee of success. All successful leaders and managers are firm decision makers.
Of course a major strength of
Getting Things Done
is in the habit of making decisions on the "front end," rather than delaying them, which causes clutter and stress. (Barbara Hemphill - of
File, Act, Toss fame - is famous for saying that
Clutter is Postponed Decisions.)
But sometimes it's not that easy! So one bit of advice I've been trying to follow is to 1) ask if I have all the information I need (or am likely to get), then, if so, 2) do a brief internal check-in to figure out what I
really want to do, and 3) do it and move on.
The motivation for this comes from research on executives, which indicates it's better to make a strong, quick decision, knowing that most of them can later be revisited, un-done, or at least worked-around relatively reasonably. (See
Organized for Success: Top Executives and CEOs Reveal the Organizing Principles That Helped Them Reach the Top
by Stephanie Winston -
Organizing Law #2. Make decisions, even if they need to be revised later.)
What I've found by doing this is first, the results are just fine! I.e., the anticipation and worry are often unwarranted. Additionally, I've found that making the decision and then acting on it empowers me - I feel better, lighter, and just a bit more courageous after.
This leads to Matt's Law on Decisions:
If you want to avoid feeling discomfort or fear when making hard decisions, get practice by doing it a lot.
In other words, making bold decisions is hard at first, but gets easier with practice. Yes, you'll hesitate before hitting your email program's "Send" button, and you may check back frequently to see what the response was, but I've found this will eventually cultivate a very healthy "what the hell" attitude.
This has the benefit of making me more productive: It's now
much easier to write shorter, more direct "good enough" email messages (with no grammatical or spelling errors, of course), thus bringing more actions within the two minute rule (more
here and - surprisingly -
here). Also, I'm convinced making a quick, firm decision uses up less mental energy because, let's face it, decision-making is hard work!
Finally, as
Joe points out, each decision we make opens doors as well as (possibly) closing them, though we often focus on the latter. So be bold, make some good, strong decisions, and move ahead. Cheers!
ResourcesArticles: You may find useful the following articles on decision-making:
Books: In addition to Susan Jeffer's very helpful
Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway
and Edward de Bono's terriffic
Six Thinking Hats
(there's a nice summary at
MindTools), I found a number of books with the theme "If not now, when?" including:
Quotes: Here are a few of my favorite thoughts on boldness, with the first two being from poets with some local history (they were both
notable residents of the great
town I live in):
- Fortune befriends the bold. -- Emily Dickinson
- Freedom lies in being bold. -- Robert Frost
- If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am not for others, what am I? And if not now, when? -- Rabbi Hillel
- Are you in earnest? Seize this very minute! Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Only engage, and then the mind grows heated. Begin, and then the work will be completed. -- Jean Anouilh
- Begin, be bold and venture to be wise. -- Horace
- Be bold. If you're going to make an error, make a doozy, and don't be afraid to hit the ball. -- Billie Jean King
- Laugh at yourself, but don't ever aim your doubt at yourself. Be bold. When you embark for strange places, don't leave any of yourself safely on shore. Have the nerve to go into unexplored territory. -- Alan Alda
- The flower has opened, has been in the sun and is unafraid. I'm taking more chances; I'm bold and proud. -- Paula Cole
- All good fortune is a gift of the gods, and you don't win the favor of the ancient gods by being good, but by being bold. -- Anita Brookner
- Fortune favors the bold. -- Virgil
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