Do your research, take your time, word-smith the heck out of your words. And then decide.

Leverage all of the time you spent deciding by spreading your decision over the next decade.

For example, in our office we:

1.  Play a game of Plinko at our weekly meeting when it’s your birthday to win cold-hard cash. This prevents us from finding out it’s your birthday, spending time online figuring out what to get you, and making a mad dash to the store to pick up a gift. It also frees up your colleagues’ from the mental load of deciding what to write when they sign your card.

2.  Use TextExpander software to pre-think our email responses so they’re ready for action on Tuesday when we are too busy to think clearly. We have hundreds of TextExpander templates, including one for rejecting a candidate, saying “no” to a project, and scheduling a meeting – all composed to perfection a few years ago.

3.  Use “Subscribe and Save” for office snacks – nobody has any mental load deciding if we should get Swedish Fish or Wheat Thins (Swedish Fish, of course!).

4.  Ask each employee, when they start, 3 sandwiches they like.  This makes ordering lunch for the team a whole lot easier for our Office Manager.

What have you handed over to the “Decide Once” gods in your life?

HT to Kendra Adachi (aka the “Lazy Genius”) and her book The Lazy Genius Way for this principal.

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