Personal Decision Making
We make about ~35, 000 decisions per day by some account. 226 per day on food alone apparently.
Here though, we're discussing personal decisions that require a bit more attention.
“Make good choices”, I often say to anyone who cares to listen. It’s simple, concise and assumes the recipient has the ‘tool set’ to go about actually making good choices in the moment. It is not telling them how to make good choices. The point is simply to prompt them to think about the outcomes of their actions.
So how do we ‘make good choices’?
Well, we make good (and bad) choices based on our own personal values, upbringing & desires. And those good choices are what suits us . . . most of the time at least. We all make bad choices along the way, but then how you live & deal with the outcome is important. Important to our well-being and personal fulfilment.
Doing dumb shizzle leads to regret.
And regret can be all consuming and destructive.
So . . . make good choices, make good decisions
There is one way to add to our ability to make good decisions and that is to have a number of decision making models at our disposal, i.e. in our brains, to go along-side our personal values, upbringing & desires. These models are smart ways to help us make better informed decisions for those more important things in life.
Heres a short list to start with…
- Inversion – Invert, Always Invert
- The Urgent Important Matrix (aka Eisenhower Matrix)
- SWOT Analysis
- Your Current Status
- The Crossroads model
- The Rubber Band model
- The Feedback Model
- The Consequences Model
The Logic Model : Personal Decisions
| Inputs > | Activities > | Outputs > | Outcome > | Impact |
-Choices & decisions to be made -Decision Models to use | Also use decision model/s to help make decisions | Decision based own values, plus the applied model | -Fewer dumb decisions. -More optimal decisions. -Improved Personal Productivity | A heightened sense of Personal Fulfilment |
Decision Models
Inversion – Invert, always invert!
Inversion is a mental model to look at a problem from a
The Urgent-Important Matrix
Use the Urgent-Important Matrix, or Eisenhower Matrix, to help you make better
Personal SWOT analysis
A personal SWOT Analysis is a useful tool to help you plan a future direction, by knowing more
