10/10/10

There's an interesting decision making technique that I came across in the book Decisive. It's called 10/10/10. The technique was developed by Suzy Welch. She has a book by the same name.

The idea is to think about how you will feel about a decision in 10 minutes, 10 months, and 10 years. The idea being discussed in Decisive is how to avoid short-term emotion when making a decision. Bad decisions, they say, are made while having strong emotions such as anger or greed.

For example, I recently bought a new car, what a lot of people would agree can be an emotional event. Ten minutes after I walked out the door, I'd be excited about the new car and happy with my decision.

In ten months, I may still be thinking about the car I didn't buy and if I would have been happier in that one.

Ten years from now I'll be happy I choose the car that was more reliable over the one that would have been fun, but probably had more problems. If I didn't keep the car ten years, I would have been happy that the car I choose was the one with the higher resale value.

So next time you have a decision to make, think about 10/10/10.