How To Make Big, Life-Changing Decisions (Standard Operating Procedure)

Below is my personal SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) for making big decisions, whether they be in my personal life or in business. Credit is due to Cal Newport and his book Deep Work for the inspiration and the approach.

Background and Theoretical Approach

• THE WRONG MINDSET: the “any benefit” approach to determining what to do or what to focus on: you decide to do something do or focus on something because it gives you a benefit. Any benefit. But you don’t take the time to look at the complexities of what focusing on that thing will cost you (in money or attention or time or focus)
• THE RIGHT MINDSET: The Craftsman’s approach to decision making and focus selection: Identify the core factors that determine success and happiness in your professional and personal life. Focus on something only if its positive impacts on these factors substantially outweigh its negative impacts.
• 3 techniques for getting away from the “any benefit” approach and towards the “craftsman’s approach”:
  1. Apply the law of the vital few (AKA Pareto Principle) to your habits (offers a way to reduce the complexity of making the decision of what is really important to you)
     1. step 1: choose 1-2 personal and 1-2 professional goals. These must be high level and non-specific (ie. I want to be a good parent to my children, and run a successful business)
     2. step 2: for each goal, list the 2-3 most important activities to help you reach that goal. These activities must be more specific, but not so specific that they are one-time activities (ie. to be a good parent, I need to be present with my children and provide a positive example/ be a positive role model)
     3. Step 3: when deciding what to focus your attention on, or what decision to make, ask whether that thing has substantial positive impact, substantial negative impact, or little impact on the activities you identified above. Only make decisions if there is a substantial positive impact and that these outweigh the negative impacts.
     4. The Law of the Vital Few states that: In many settings, 80% of a given effect is due to just 20% of the possible causes.
        1. in other words, only 20% of the activities you do will make the biggest contribution to accomplishing your life goals, which is why this strategy asks you to focus on the most important activities

Practical Application – Decision Making Process

1. As it related to the opportunity, decision, or tool you’re deciding to pursue or not, make 4 lists:
   1. Hard costs
   2. Opportunity Costs
   3. Real Benefits
   4. Percieved & Possible Benefits
2. Once your lists are done, write out your top goals (the highest-level goals)
   1. for each goal, determine whether the decision/opportunity/tool will have
      1. Neutral impact
      2. Negative impact
      3. Slight positive impact
      4. Substantial positive impact
3. Only pursue the opportunities that have substantial positive impact on at least 1 of your goals. If it will have substantial positive impact but a negative impact on another, then you must decide which outweighs which.
4. At this point, you must have the discipline to follow through with implementing your decision.

Example: Writing for a Local Publication

• I used this technique when deciding whether or not to write a local publication’s “innovation feature” article, which was an interesting opportunity to me at the time but would have also caused conflicts with my business. Here’s my thought process:

Hard Costs	Opportunity Costs
potential travel costs:	time away from wife and kids
gas	4-6 hours interviewing
wear and tear on vehicle	10 hours writing and editing
food	focus taken away from business

Real Benefits	Perceived/ Potential Benefits
get paid	“name” gets out there
strengthen relationship with magazine	feel good/ Ego
gain more experience negotiating	might meet someone I can add to my network
	might get a lead on a business to acquire

Goal Analysis

1. Goal 1: Be a worthy father to my children: Neutral/ Negative
2. Goal 2: Be a worthy husband to my wife: Neutral/ Negative
3. Goal 3: Successfully manage and grow a portfolio of companies: Slight Positive

Final Analysis:

• there is not enough positive to outweigh the negatives, so I can not write this article.