By Joylynn M. Ross
One of the first in-person events I was blessed to attend since the pandemic was the “Women in Business Summit” held in Las Vegas, Nevada. It’s an amazing annual event founded and hosted by Monica Coburn. With educational, inspirational, motivational, and informational sessions that touch on leadership, finances, personal development, and entrepreneurship, one of my favorite sessions was “Productivity: Making the Most of Your Time and Effort,” presented by Brenda Prinzavalli.
Organizing Strategist Brenda Prinzavalli shared how you can not only make the most of your time and effort by being organized, but how you can also make better decisions; decisions you perhaps won’t regret later on down the line. Below are five ways to help you have clarity when making decisions as well as avoid decision remorse:
1. Delegate your decisions to a mastermind team: This can be a group of professional peers, family, or friends. Use them as a sounding board on different ideas and decisions you have to make as well as ask for and consider their input. This decision-making mastermind team should be comprised of people you respect and people whom respect you and care about and are concerned with your higher good.
2. Schedule “Think Time”: Set time aside where you and your gadgets are on “do not disturb.” Make an appointment on your calendar (hard copy or digital) if need be. But carve out time specifically to think. Pay attention to every thought that enters your mind – the good and the bad. Evaluate each thought, release it, and then act on it if need be. But clear your thoughts as much as possible so that you have the mental space to think about the decision at hand before finalizing it.
3. Create a list of the decisions you have to make as they arise: Write down, for the most part, some of the most important decisions that you have to make, as well as any deadlines on which the decision must be made. For those decisions that require an action, can it be something you can delegate to someone else? If so, delegate, and then revisit any decisions that still need to be made and determine if having cleared off your plate will play a role in any commitment-related decisions.
4. Create Operating Procedures for daily tasks and then delegate: One way to help stay organized – especially when it comes to keeping your thoughts organized – is by implementing step number three above. But writing the list of decisions can be the easy part compared to the actual delegation of tasks. One reason why some people opt not to delegate is because they feel the time they have to spend telling or training someone else how to do the task, they could have done it themselves. This is why when you have tasks that you do on a regular basis, you should write down the steps. You can even record yourself talking out the steps. That way you can share the handwritten and/or audio or video recorded steps to the person you are delegating the tasks to.
5. Find alternatives for your yes: My grandmother once told me that you can change your “no” to a “yes,” but you can’t change your “yes” to a “no.” It shows a lack of integrity and can diminish one’s trust for you. But if you find that you have committed to something that you can no longer do, try your best to come up with an alternative other than changing your “yes” to a “no.” For example, if you agreed to be a presenter at a conference or summit, instead of cancelling, try to find a colleague or peer to replace you, or ask if you can pre-record your presentation and submit the video. This way you remove the remorse of having made the decision to say yes, or you eliminate the remorse of changing your “yes” to a “no”.
Decision remorse leaves the same nauseating feeling in the pit of your stomach that buyer’s remorse does. But if you commit the time and energy to be able to think about the decision with clarity, you’ll experience less decision remorse, and this starts by organizing your life and organizing your mind. But don’t take it from me—take it from the expert! Visit Brenda’s website at www.balorg.com and purchase her book, 31 Days to an Organized Life: Regain Your Sanity in Just One Month of Simple Actions.
Joylynn M. Ross, writing as BLESSEDselling Author E. N. Joy, is the author behind the “New Day Divas” series coined “Soap Opera in Print.” She is an Essence Magazine Bestselling Author who wrote secular books under the names Joylynn M. Jossel and JOY. She writes children’s and middle grade books under the name N. Joy. Her fist non-fiction book, Act Like an Author, Think Like a Business: Ways to Achieve Financial Literary Success, written under the name Joylynn M. Ross, released March 2019. You can visit E. N. Joy’s website at www.enjoywrites.com.