Overview: Guide to how to think clearly and make good decisions.
Enemies of Clear Thinking
Emotion Default: Feelings take over.
Ego Default: React negatively to anything that threatens self-worth. Confidence blinds us to risk.
Social Default: Conform to the group. Short term gain; long term pain.
Inertia Default: We resist change.
Building Strength Establish rituals.
Self Accountability: Be responsible for your own actions in all situations.
Self Knowledge: Know your strengths and weaknesses.
Self Control: Master your fears, desires and other emotions.
Self Confidence: Trust your abilities and your value to others.
Empowers resilience after negative feedback and adaptability for change.
Talk to yourself about adversity you’ve faced.
Overcoming past hardship gives confidence to face future hardship.
Create your own personal board of directors. They should have a skill, attitude, or disposition you want.
Managing Weaknesses Can’t change everything, but you can manage it.
Prevention: HALT: hungry, alone, lonely, tired. Bad time to make decisions.
Rules for Yourself: Ex. never say “yes” to anything on the phone.
Making Checklists
Frame of Reference: Explain someone else’s perspective to them then ask “what did I miss?”
Invisible > Visible: Write things down and discuss with others. Learn from mistakes.
Decision Making
Define the Problem - What do you want? What are the obstacles?
Very important step that is usually rushed.
Get to the root cause, not just the symptoms.
Write things down. If using jargon, you probably don’t fully understand the problem.
Explore Solutions – Imagine different possible solutions.
Do a pre-mortem.
Force yourself to identify 3+ solutions so you don’t just pick between 2.
Consider combining options.
Acknowledge opportunity cost of waiting on decisions.
Evaluating Options
Identify the one most important thing.
Know what you are looking for before you sift thru data. Most info is irrelevant.
Get feedback from others, while being aware of their biases.
Act
Understand that not all decisions are equal. Move fast when consequences are low.
Knowledge workers produce decisions.
Good decisions are about the process, not the outcome. Write down your process.
Disclaimer: These are notes I created from reading the book. This is not completely comprehensive and may include errors and typos. No guarantee is provided as to the accuracy of the information. It is provided for educational purposes only.