How to Make Decisions When You Have No Time

Someone reached out to me about a collaboration opportunity. And for the first time, I knew exactly how to make decisions like that without agonizing over it for days.

It sounded good. The kind of thing that probably would have been profitable. The kind of thing that, six months earlier, I would have found a way to make work no matter what it took.

But there was one problem.

She could only meet on Sunday afternoons because of the time difference between us.

Sunday afternoon is protected family time. It is not on the table. It is not something I negotiate around or make exceptions for or squeeze things into just because the opportunity sounds good enough.

So I turned it down.

And here’s what I want you to know: I didn’t agonize over it. I didn’t make a pros and cons list. And I didn’t spend three days going back and forth wondering if I made the right call. I just knew.

Because I already had the answer before the question was even asked.

That’s what having a real decision-making filter does for you. First, it helps you decide faster. But more importantly, it removes the decision entirely for anything that falls outside the lines you’ve already drawn.

Here’s what I know is non-negotiable for me.

Dinner with my family. Every night. That happens.

Bedtime at 10. Mine. Non-negotiable.

Checking my work emails and customer service every day. That’s the business equivalent of showing up.

Everything else, and I mean everything, can wait until tomorrow if those three things aren’t done. Not because I don’t care about the rest of it. But because I’ve decided in advance what actually matters, so I don’t relitigate that decision every single day.

Here’s the real problem most of us have. We make the same decisions over and over because we never actually made them in the first place.

We never sat down and said this is protected, this is flexible, this can wait, this is not on the table. So every week the same questions come up. Should I take this meeting? Should I say yes to this? Or should I skip this thing to do that thing?

And we exhaust ourselves deciding.

The filter takes most of that off your plate. Not by making you rigid or inflexible, or someone who misses every good opportunity. Instead, it gives you a clear picture of what matters enough to protect and what doesn’t, so when something comes up, you already know how to make decisions quickly and confidently.

The collaboration would have been good. Sunday afternoon is better.

That’s not a hard call when you know what you’re protecting and why.

If you want to build that filter for yourself, the Direction Reset Mini Workshop is where to start. It’s $7 and it will probably change how you make decisions for a long time after.

Get the Direction Reset Mini Workshop →

Stop doing more. Start doing what works.