The decision box

“Don’t make 1000 decisions when 1 will do”

I’ve devised a method for myself that I call the decision box. The basic premise is this:

• Choose a decision you want to commit to. Specify as much as you can.
• Choose for how long you’re going to commit.
• Lock the decision in, and don’t open the box until it’s due.
• Go execute, and don’t look back at the decision!

I’ve always had a hard time making decisions. I still remember going to the toy store with my mom, standing there for hours on end to decide what set of Pokémon Cards I would buy.

It’s played to my favour at times, and at times it’s been the worst. So I came up with the decision box for the kind of decisions that I could make once, instead of a thousand times. I’ll take my cold showers as an example.

Taking cold showers in the morning can be painful. It’s not something you want to decide on when you’re in the shower, because you’ll always opt out.

Instead, I defined what it was that I wanted to do. I wanted to have at least 30 seconds of cold water with each shower. Didn’t matter if it was in the beginning or the end, or the whole thing, but I wanted to have the cold.

So I wrote it down on a little note, folded it up. Then I decided to commit for a month. So on the back of the paper, I wrote the date of 30 days away. Kind of how we do Christmas presents, a “Do not open until”-date.

And until that day, I wasn’t allowed to make any decisions regarding my cold showers. So every morning, I had at least 30 seconds of cold water running down on me. On the due date, I opened up and gave myself permission to change the decision.

I haven’t, and it’s been 3 years.