Choose… And kill off all other options

As with all the other ‘cide’s’, it’s from the Latin root, caedere “to cut, to kill”,

Suicide… Fratricide…

Fungicide….!

Ever felt stuck? Overwhelmed with decisions, and feel like your brain’s ‘full’?

Well – two great articles for you this week…

Firstly, the second(!) article, by Paul Matthews – how to stop procrastinating.

As with Quest Cognitive Hypnotherapy, he suggests you focus on the result of the task – the ‘afterwards’, rather than the task itself. In other words, what you’ll have achieved by simply getting the job done.

“Just do it” springs to mind. Or, “Eat that frog” – stop thinking about it and just get on with it – because you know it will have been worth it.

And secondly, the first(!) article, from Dr Travis Bradberry, is about automating routine decisions, freeing up the space in your head for the bigger and more important stuff.

One idea is creating your own work ‘uniform’ – a neat (possibly!) way of not having to think too hard, first thing in the morning!

Did you ever see Steve Jobs in anything other than his black turtle-neck sweater?

No! I thought not!! In fact, it became part of his brand. Not his product’s brand, but his brand.

Some of you will know Vanessa Hunt and will therefore know her signature colour is royal blue. It’s her way of standing out from the crowd. And it works! Clever, eh?

We used to moan about wearing school uniform, back in the day. … a loooong way back in the day! And we used to customise it as much as we could get away with it!

Two inches (Did I say ‘inches‘? It was a long time ago!) higher here… Two inches longer there… Daring, indeed!

But of course, not fussing over what to wear every day did allow us to concentrate on other, some would say, more ‘important’ stuff!!!

Cutting through procrastination and setting yourself up for automatic decisions are two fabulous examples of using your brain more efficiently for better results.

As for me…

Some decisions are easier than others…

I’ve decided to enjoy the beautiful weather, living on the river, summer events in Henley on Thames and the fabulous company of family and friends.

I’ve decided to just get on with it….

Does that count?

Making Decisions

Dr. Travis Bradberry is the co-author of the bestselling book, Emotional Intelligence 2.0, and the cofounder of TalentSmart, where you will find a wealth of emotional intelligence tests and training.

Find out how successful people make smart decisions by reading his article.

Procrastination

Paul Matthews is a global thought-leader on learning, especially informal learning – the sort we do all the time, whether or not we’re officially studying.

Remember my story about genius thinking at The Globe Theatre a few weeks back? Well, that’s a good example of the sort of thing I mean.

Here is Paul’s article on overcoming inaction. Read it now, How to Stop Procrastinating and have a look at his books, below.