Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is to go on a decision spree. If you
Speaker 1: need to make lots of small decisions, challenge yourself to
Speaker 1: do them in a short period of time. You probably
Speaker 1: won't be worse off in terms of outcomes, but you
Speaker 1: will be better off in terms of saving time, and
Speaker 1: that is a win either way. Today's tip, like some
Speaker 1: others this week, comes from Nell Wolfhart, who is a
Speaker 1: decision coach. Nell helps people make better and swifter decisions.
Speaker 1: She shared some of her favorite decision making tips with
Speaker 1: me so I could share them with Before Breakfast listeners.
Speaker 1: If you want to learn more about Nell's work, you
Speaker 1: can visit her website at Decide and move Forward dot com.
Speaker 1: When people are really dithering about big things, Nell challenges
Speaker 1: them to cut the amount of time they have to
Speaker 1: make the decision. Whether you give yourself a month or
Speaker 1: two weeks, you are still going to have to decide,
Speaker 1: so it is often best too. As her website name suggests,
Speaker 1: Decide and Move Forward. But she notes that this also
Speaker 1: applies to small decisions. If you are chronically indecisive. She suggests,
Speaker 1: I recommend getting a stack of post it notes and
Speaker 1: on each one writing a decision you've been trying to make.
Speaker 1: What meal to prep for the week, what to wear
Speaker 1: to that friend's wedding, where to go on spring break?
Speaker 1: Then she suggests, set a timer for thirty minutes and
Speaker 1: just go right through the stack and make each decision
Speaker 1: right now. Here's the magic Now notes that you will
Speaker 1: likely see that the decision quality is just as good
Speaker 1: as if you'd agonize over each and every one. But
Speaker 1: the upside is that this process takes a lot less time.
Speaker 1: I really like this idea of a decision spree for
Speaker 1: a few reasons. One is that it resembles one of
Speaker 1: my favorite time management rules, which is to batch the
Speaker 1: little things. Rather than filling out permission slips and those
Speaker 1: forms for HR and buying birthday presents and giving your
Speaker 1: RSVP for the networking lunch. Whenever you think about these things,
Speaker 1: you save up all these tasks for a low energy
Speaker 1: time and do them all in one fell swoop. When
Speaker 1: you think about it, many small tasks are in fact
Speaker 1: decisions what to buy for that birthday, how to answer
Speaker 1: that ridiculous HR question If you are going to that
Speaker 1: networking lunch or not. If you are indecisive, those little
Speaker 1: decisions can hold up getting a lot done. It seems
Speaker 1: hard to decide, and so we put things off. But
Speaker 1: if you give yourself a small window and say that
Speaker 1: you have to come up with something, you can stop
Speaker 1: yourself from looking at all the universe of options. You
Speaker 1: will wear whatever you have that looks good to the wedding.
Speaker 1: You will buy whatever comes up as Amazon's recommendation for
Speaker 1: eleven year old girls. You will just answer whatever you
Speaker 1: think seems right on that form. Because here's the thing,
Speaker 1: most of these small decisions don't really matter. You can
Speaker 1: go to the networking lunch or not go. If you go,
Speaker 1: you might have a nice time and meet one or
Speaker 1: two new people. Maybe you will meet someone who wants
Speaker 1: to go into business with you, and the two of
Speaker 1: you come up with a billion dollar idea, but probably not.
Speaker 1: If you don't go, you'll do something else that day,
Speaker 1: and you'll meet other people at other things. No one
Speaker 1: really cares what you wear to that wedding as long
Speaker 1: as you don't make a spectacle of yourself. Once you
Speaker 1: realize that, you see that what you decide really doesn't
Speaker 1: need to be that big a deal. So you can
Speaker 1: decide quickly based on what seems like a good decision,
Speaker 1: then you can get on with your life. Much is
Speaker 1: fine either way. There will be some good things that
Speaker 1: happen and some bad things no matter what you choose.
Speaker 1: But if you make all your decisions in a decision spree,
Speaker 1: then you will have time left over for other things
Speaker 1: that are generally more fun than experiencing severe in decision.
Speaker 1: So that sounds like a real wind to me. If
Speaker 1: you try going on a decision spree, let me know
Speaker 1: how it goes, and be sure to check out Nell
Speaker 1: Wolfhart's decision making tips at decide and move forward dot com.
Speaker 1: In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and
Speaker 1: here's to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody,
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from you. You can send me
Speaker 1: your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with
Speaker 1: me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod
Speaker 1: that's B the number four then Breakfast p o D.
Speaker 1: You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: Podcasts at iHeartMedia dot com That Before Breakfast is spelled
Speaker 1: out with all the letters. Thanks so much. Should I
Speaker 1: look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a
Speaker 1: production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
Speaker 1: favorite shows. For four