Make Decisions Quickly and Accept That Change Is Inevitable

It’s early morning, coffee cooling beside your laptop, and two big choices are staring you down: which subject to choose for your term paper, and whether to double down on a side hustle or drop it. You feel the pull to research all possibilities, to weigh pros and cons endlessly. But you remember how often you’ve gotten stuck—waiting on the ‘perfect’ decision, losing weeks.

This time, you grab a sticky note and jot out a quick pro/con list, set a timer, and, when it buzzes, you choose—American history for the term paper, and pause on the side gig for now. But here’s the shift: instead of seeing these decisions as forever, you write “check again next Friday” right in your planner.

A week later, with some real experience and feedback, you see what’s working. Maybe the topic needs a twist or the side project can restart in a small way. You haven’t made mistakes. You’ve built momentum and made room for change, rather than being held back by ‘what ifs’ and sunk costs.

Science and behavioral psychology confirm the immense cost of decision fatigue and the power of closure in propelling us forward. Agile organizations and adaptive leaders celebrate temporary decisions because they free up energy for action, and keep progress alive when perfect answers just aren’t there yet.

Set a timer any time you’re stuck, then trust yourself to make the best call given what you know right now. Tell yourself and others that these choices aren’t permanent. Make it part of your routine to review decisions—which keeps mistakes from hurting and lets you course-correct before problems snowball. Momentum beats being stuck; give it a try with something that’s been nagging at you all week.