Decision Making Made Simple

Key takeaways

• Sort each choice as a pebble, a stone or a boulder, and save your slow, careful thinking for the few boulders that are hard to undo.
• When a choice comes with too many options, pick one filter, such as free or close to home, and cut the list to three before choosing.
• When you are stuck between two options, look for a third, then ask one question: what matters most here?
• Most everyday choices have several good-enough answers, so stop searching once an option clearly does the job instead of hunting for the perfect one.
• Teach children the three sizes and pause stories to ask what a character could choose, so they practise deciding where mistakes cost nothing.

Inside this bit

1. Why deciding feels so hard at home

   Parents are often told they make too many decisions. Just as often, the real trouble is too many options inside each one.

2. Four myths that make deciding harder

   Myth one: there is one right answer, and your job is to find it. Most everyday choices have several good-enough answers, and chasing the perfect one mostly produces delay.

3. Pebble, stone or boulder: the one sort

   If you keep one idea from this book, keep this one. Before deciding anything, ask how heavy it is.

4. The simple method: three options, one question

   When you feel stuck, you are usually stuck between two options, each with a drawback. The first move is to find a third.

5. Giving children the three sizes

   Children have the same sorting problem as adults, only louder. A seven-year-old can sob for twenty minutes over the colour of a pencil case, then agree in two seconds to a friend's dare to climb the school wall.

6. A family habit: pause the story

   Children practise deciding most easily on someone else's choices, because nothing is at stake for them. Stories give you endless material.