Every accomplishment starts with a decision, in fact, living is the constant process of deciding what to do. Decision making and productivity go hand-in-hand.
Have you ever noticed when you go out to eat with your friends or family that often the hardest part is simply deciding where to go–and when you get there, deciding what to eat?
Often deciding ends up taking way more time than it really should.
Indecisiveness is the enemy of productivity
Indecisiveness can be a real productivity killer and sometimes we find it hard to admit that. As Jimmy Buffett once said, “Indecisiveness may, or may not, be my problem”
Each day we make hundreds of decisions and if we can learn to make the right decisions more quickly we can significantly increase our overall productivity.
Here are three ways to spend less time deciding and more time doing.
Use good habits to eliminate as many decisions as possible
The fastest decision is one that you already made.
For example, if you develop a habit of working on your hardest task first thing each morning you no longer have to take time each day to decide when to work on that.
Our CEO here at PlanPlus Online, Keith Norris, is a master of this. In fact, he even applies this principle to his diet. Each day he eats the same thing for lunch to ensure that he doesn’t have to waste time and energy trying to decide what to eat.
Develop a process for decision making
It’s easy to get ourselves in loops of worry when trying to make a major decision. So rather than spiraling out of control, work your way through your process.
This will you give you more confidence and will help you stay productive as you weigh your options.
Accept that sometimes you will make the wrong decision and learn to adjust as you go
Despite our best efforts we can never know every possible variable in a given situation and this means that sometimes things won’t go perfectly.
However, it’s usually still better to make a wrong decision, and then fix it, than to make no decision at all.
Effective decision making will help you be your most productive self.
