You know the best way to improve your decision-making?

Simply, know what you want.

Today, we are faced with more options and choices than ever before. As a result, we experience decision fatigue more often, leading to increased stress and overall dissatisfaction with life. In fact, research suggests that we make an average of 35,000 decisions each day. This number is only expected to grow as we continue to face more options and choices in our daily lives. It is therefore important that we understand why we make the decisions we do, so that we can live intentional and happier lives. When we have clarity in our decision-making, we become more satisfied and confident with the choices we make, ultimately leading to a more fulfilling life.

Enhance your brain, avoid the Kool-Aid

Mental models are frameworks that help us understand how things work and make decisions based on that understanding. They can be useful for decision making because they allow us to simplify complex situations and focus on the most important factors. By using mental models, we can make more informed decisions and avoid common cognitive biases that can lead to poor choices. Without further ado here are 3 mental models for decision making, learn more here! (link to Julian site)

Long-term: Regret Minimization

Make long-term life decisions using Regret Minimization: So pick the thing that you'll totally hate yourself for not doing when you're old and wrinkly, like when your 80 years old. That's how you make sure your life is super fulfilling. However one thing to keep in mind is that you will change and thus your perspective on what you truly want will change as you grow older. Thus sometimes it is in your best interests to drop your passions for other passions and explore. Don’t stick to the same thing, try something new, try something your scared of, we need to keep exploring to grow so use this as a general north star, just a guide.

Medium Term: Pareto’s Principle

Make medium-term decisions using Pareto's Principle: to maximize ROI, preferentially invest in the 20% of inputs that produce the most output. Basically the foundations in life really matter. When discussing fitness, it is in our best interest to workout and eat an intentional diet. However sometimes we may avoid this in the favor of shortcuts and health hacks, that only add 20% return, and are not included in the essential foundations of fitness. Often if we just workout and eat right, we can avoid 80% of other tips and tricks, because we are doing the 20% that really matter giving us 80% of the real results. It helps to boil down our goals to the most essential moving blocks, and make sure to just stick to those.

Short Term: ICE (Impact, Confidence, Easy)

Make short-term decisions using the ICE model: When facing many options needing prioritization, score each on three variables using a scale of 1-10:

1. How much positive Impact the option would have if it succeeded.
2. The Confidence you have that this option will succeed if you attempt it.
3. How Easy (low resource, low time) it would be to pursue this option.

The ICE table is a really helpful tool for making short-term decisions when you're stuck with a bunch of options. The idea is to score each option based on its impact, confidence, and ease of pursuit, and then use these scores to prioritize your choices. By doing this, you can take into account both the potential positive impact of each option and your own level of confidence in its success. And by considering ease of pursuit, you'll be able to choose options that are actually feasible for you to pursue, given your available time and resources. All in all, the ICE model is a pretty simple but super effective way to make informed decisions in the short term.

Crystal Balls for Your Mind

When making decisions we often run into this phrase, “I wish I had more clarity”. We don’t want clarity, we really want confidence.  We want assurance that we are making the best decision for our future or addressing the  present problem effectively. Clarity = confidence in the decision. The more clarity, the more confidence we have, vice versa, they are the same thing. However it can be difficult to be confident in our decisions if we do not know why we are making them. Thus we can gain more clarity and confidence if we know where we want our decisions to take us.

Noob: Annual Vision

Write down your long term vision, lets say for the year. Most of the time people do this during New Years, and most of the time they don’t stick with it. Because people change and thus need to reassess their motivations and true desires more often.

Being Intentional: Quarterly Visions

Map out your vision for the year, and then review it every 3-4 months. Compare your progress to your original annual goals and assess whether you still feel passionate and motivated. If not, evaluate whether your goals are worth pursuing or if you should pivot. If you still feel passionate but lack motivation, try finding another incentive or reason to continue pursuing that goal. Evaluating yourself every quarter can help ensure that you are living an intentional life.

Hardcore Optimizer: Decision Journal

A decision journal is a tool for reflecting on past decisions, thinking through current decisions, and avoiding problems before they happen. By keeping a record of your decision-making process, you can collect accurate and honest feedback on what you were thinking at the time you made the decision. This feedback helps you see when you were lucky or unlucky, and what factors led to successful or unsuccessful outcomes. Ultimately, a decision journal can help you make better decisions in the future by learning from your past experiences. This is definitely for the hardcore productivity dude who wants to optimize everything they do. I personally don’t keep a specific decision journal, because I just journal every single day about various thoughts and ideas. So I have a pretty decent idea of what decision and habits will lead to what consequences and thus am overall satisfied with the decisions I make. F maybe I am a hardcore productivity dude!

Thanks for reading, let's grow together :)