If decisions are as overwhelming for you as they were for me, I have good news. Today I am giving you 5 of my tips to make it easy to make decisions.
Honestly, from the last year of uni, decisions were all I thought about anymore. And it never stopped. Not when I got into my job, not when I bought my house, or renovated my house, or actually lived in it. Adulting seems to equal decision making, and I’m not loving it. and I’m guessing, neither are you.
But the good news is, that I’ve learnt some things about how to make it easy to make decisions, and I am spilling them all right here. So prepare yourself, get a notepad or print this and stick it on your mirror, because you will want to keep this VERY close to you.
Make it a multiple choice question
The first tip to make it easy to make decisions, is to cut down your options. We get so overwhelmed by the amount of choices we have, th amount of options, that we get decision fatigue from one simple decision and we’re done for the day. So make it super simple for yourself.
Limit the options for every single decision. Get rid of things you don’t wear anyway, to make getting dressed easier. Stop buying 7 types of cereal because ‘you like choice’. We both know you eat that one type the most anyway, and one is only in case the other 6 run out.
Whenever you have to make a choice, the first thing you have to do to make it easy to make decisions is to cut down your options. Be ruthless in this and thank yourself for it. Imagine the difference between:
- what do I want to eat today?
OR - Do I want to eat pasta or chili today?
Did I hear a sigh of relief? I thought so. this is really how simple it can be. I saw this thing a while ago where a couple had a 5-3-1 system, and I thought it was genius. Here’s how that worked, because you’ll want to steal it and that’s absolutely okay:
Let’s say you and your partner/friend/mom/colleaue/anyone go for dinner.
Person A gives person B 5 options for places to go
Person B picks their 3 favorite options from those 5
Person A pickes the place they go to from those 3 options
So simple, so smart, I’m sorry I didn’t think of this myself.
Make it a yes/no question
Something I did realize myself, is the next tip to make it easier to make decisions, and that is YES/NO questions. Damn. Just cut everything down to a yes/no situation, Do I want pasta? Yes/no. Do I want rice? Yes/no. Do I want to walk? Yes/No.
It’s pretty self explanatory, but it will create so much brainspace. it’s perfect if you can’t even pick between the 3 options. Like the other day I was debating walking, taking my bike or taking my scooter. and I couldn’t pick and like every sane person, sat on my couch for 15 minutes, trying to work it out. I couldn’t. Untill…
- Do I want to take the scooter? Yes/No.
- Do I want to take my bike? Yes/no.
- Do I want to walk? Yes/no.
I promise you, that was almost instinctively and if I’d done that sooner, it wouldve saved me from staring at the wall for a solid 15 minutes. Try it. Seriously.
Get to know yourself
In a completely different way of thinking, get to know yourself. I very strongly believe that when you truly know yourself, your likes, dislikes, wants, needs, values and priorities, decision-making can be a piece of cake. And it’ll be even easier to decide what cake that would be. Because you know yourself.
But seriously, imagine knowing yourself so well. You know the person you are right now, but also the person you can be. The person you secretly already are. And you take the decisions to be her. And it’s easy. it’s effortless. You know your priorities and you know what you want.
Getting to know yourself may be a bit more difficult than turning your open question into a yes/no one, but it’s much more rewarding. because it will benefit you in every part of your life, for the rest of your life.
So start learning more about yourself, so you can use this information forever. And if you have no idea where to start, I am always here to help you out.
Leave a Reply