music, business & geekery

My name is Justin and I have a problem. I’m terrible at making decisions. I’m occasionally able to make the snap-decision and say, “Obviously this is the best choice. Done.” But the majority of the time, I’m left weighing the pros and cons for minutes, hours, days, even weeks.

My troubles are only compounded when the dilemma is professional in nature. I was recently talking to a friend about once such dilemma and looking for sage advice on how to manage the pros/cons of it each possible outcome. Opportunities are good, but I can get overwhelmed easily.

My friend’s suggestion was quite simple: For each opportunity, write out your likes and dislikes about each, as well as your strengths and weaknesses in each.

So this weekend I sat down at my desk (turned on the new Black Keys album) and proceeded to list out my likes, dislikes, strengths and weaknesses for each opportunity.

Being a very visual person, what I discovered at the conclusion of the exercise was both stunning and obvious. I’m happy to report that my decision just got tremendously easier. A measly hour of my time has yielded great results. (Just remember, there still may be other factors not present in this exercise [other other parties involved, for example], but it’s is aimed at helping you wrap your head around those factors which you can control. After all, the things which you cannot control are not worth the effort anyway.)

Let me know if this trick works for you or if you’ve tried similar things.

Now, what to have for dinner…