Decision ~

the action or process of deciding something or of resolving a question.

Introduction

After some thinking recently I realized that I don't like the process of making decisions. Maybe its that I'm inconsistent, or that they cause a lot of stress. I'm looking for ways to remove as much of the mental strain from decision making as possible. This page is a collection of what I have learned so far.

I believe that a large part of life is a result of decisions. For example, a large portion ~70% of our health is a result of the decisions and habits we make over the course of our life. Same goes for Finances, Fitness, Career satisfaction, Relationship satisfaction, etc.

When I think about this, I think about how we will in a world with so much research and available information. There are tons of books, research studies, and other peoples past experiences out there, easily within reach.

It is up to us to do our best job of making these decisions for our health, finances, and relationships to the best of our available information.

On one hand, there is too much information to go through in able to be able to directly determine what the best decision is in any situation. We could get pretty close to reaching this point, but it is un-realistic to try and have all of the information to make these decisions.

On the other hand, I am sure that with a general amount of the information the is currently available we can make as best of decisions as we know how to according to science and human history.

In some situations there isn't a 'right' answer. In which case I'm not sure what to do other than to make the best decision at that time. For example, there isn't a 'right' choice of who to date or marry, but there definitely is people you will have a better time with than others.

All of this to say, with a little bit of research and effort, we can have a pretty effective guide to making the best possible decision given the available information and context of the situation.

In essence, the quest for better decision-making is about learning to navigate the tension between the ideal of fully-informed, optimal decision-making and the reality of our bounded rationality. This involves learning how to distinguish between important and unimportant decisions, gathering and evaluating information effectively, listening to our intuition when appropriate, learning from our past decisions, and remaining adaptable and open to changing our decisions when new information emerges.
~ Chat GPT

Decision Making Principles

  1. Never spend more than 30% of the time spent planning.

Financial Decisions

Small Decisions

Small purchase ~ < 15% of available

For small purchases I think about

Planning Decisions

Travel

I defer most decisions to whoever is paying for the trip. I am not a very picky traveler.

Time

Food

Avoid Eating List:

When possible/convenient avoid eating these foods, and find an alternative:

Preferred Food:

When it's available, this food has been linked to a healthier lifestyle:

Harvard's Healthly Eating Pyramid Harvard's Healthy Eating Pyramid [1] Harvard's Healthy Eating Plate Harvard's Healthy Eating Plate [2]

Eating in a group setting

Groceries

Footnotes:

  1. Harvard: Healthy Eating Pyramid Copyright © 2008. For more information about The Healthy Eating Pyramid, please see The Nutrition Source, Department of Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, www.thenutritionsource.org, and Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy, by Walter C. Willett, M.D., and Patrick J. Skerrett (2005), Free Press/Simon & Schuster Inc.
  2. Harvard: Healthy Eating Plate Copyright © 2011, Harvard University. For more information about The Healthy Eating Plate, please see The Nutrition Source, Department of Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, www.thenutritionsource.org, and Harvard Health Publications, www.health.harvard.edu.