The Decision Fatigue Chronicles Vol. 2
The best and the worst of "If it's not a hell yes, it's a no."
I send these emails every Wednesday, an offering for anyone who wants to move beyond the pro/con list. Here is where we can connect and go a bit deeper on the topics I introduce on the podcast. Thanks to the kind support of paid subscribers, I’m able to keep the podcast ad-free. Below I’ll share a few more words with free subscribers (so glad you’re here!)
In this week’s episode of The Next Right Thing, we talked about the decision-making binary made popular by author and entrepreneur, Derek Sivers, who advises people to use this phrase if you're over committed or too scattered: “If it’s not a hell yes, it’s a no.”
Sometimes this simple binary is helpful. If you’re having trouble making a decision, you may need to give yourself an extreme limit like this.
But the reality for most of us is sometimes we just have to choose partial solutions, half-way yeses, and reluctant no’s.
In the spirit of reflection and decision-making, I’m looking back over the last three months of my own life and I’m going to share with you when this particular binary was helpful and when it was unhelpful. Here are the definitions I’m using for both:
Helpful: It was a good guideline for making a decision and helped to ease decision fatigue.
Unhelpful: It made the decision feel more confusing, actually adding to my decision fatigue.
As you read my experience using this binary, perhaps you’ll tuck this phrase away for times when it may be helpful for you as well. And maybe it will give you some insight around when it might be better for you to ignore this advice altogether.
Note for free subscribers: I’m so glad you’re here! I send out complete posts once per month, available to all. I reserve most posts for paid subscribers as their support enables me to continue to do my work. I continue to send partial posts to free subscribers so that you know what we are talking about and can make an informed decision about if and when you may want to join us.