Why Making Quick Decisions Improves Your Life

Why Making Quick Decisions Improves Your Life

Every day we need to make multiple decisions. What kind of car should you buy? Should you get the leather or the fabric sofa? Do you want fries with that? And those are just the simple decisions. What about the more difficult ones, such as where to live or which school to attend? Those could require even more time. One thing I’ve learned is that making decisions quickly is important for a number of reasons. You also might like this article about How Tired Business Owners Save Time.

Making Decisions Quickly Reduces Clutter

Back when I was a professional organizer, one thing I noticed about people who were chronically disorganized is that they had difficulties making decisions. Everyone was procrastinating on the decisions. “I’ll put this here for now” they’d say. And there that object would sit for days or weeks until they could decide what to do with it. Now, maybe there was an issue with their executive functioning. Whatever the reason–they could not decide on anything quickly. And every piece of paper? That’s a decision to be made. And that inability to make a quick decision turns into clutter.

©Nathanael Burton 2010

Avoid Analysis Paralysis

We all know that one person who can’t decide what to do. They’ll hem and haw over just about anything–whether it’s putting pickles on their burger or what kind of tires to buy. And for some, they won’t be able to do the next thing until they make that first decision. Sometimes it’s not the fault of the person trying to make the decision. Sometimes there are simply too many choices! Go into any grocery store and there will be 25 different types of mustard to choose from. What’s an indecisive person to do? Lifehack has a possible solution in their 5 Tips for Lightning Fast Decision Making. (Personally, I like their two-minute rule.)

Faster Decision Making Tied to Success

If you’re the CEO of a startup, or even the boss of yourself (lol), your ability to make a decision faster will either help or hinder your progress in business. If you can’t make a decision when you have all the facts at your disposal, when can you make a decision? Debbie Allen, in her article in Entrepreneur, describes How to Make Business Decisions Faster and Better: Don’t overcomplicate things! Take ownership of the decision. Instead of waiting for the moons, stars, and planets to align, move on! I couldn’t agree more. After all, not making a decision is making a decision, too!

Work up to Faster Decisions

If you want to get better at making decisions more quickly, you could work up to it. For instance, make decisions about some of the smaller things in your life. For instance, what kind of tissue should you buy? Or what would you prefer today–apples or oranges? Those are two decisions that you could make quickly. And then work up to a larger decision next. And as always, give yourself a reward to making that decision. My vote is for wine. Or chocolate. Oh, no! Which one will I choose now?