The Decision Strategist

This week’s decision making technique is a little different. Problem restatement is a method designed to break you out of a situation that seems to have no solution. It avoids framing effects by shifting your point of view so that everything looks different. It forces you to think outside the box.

You can use problem restatement for decision making to clarify what it is that you are trying to decide on. Sometimes the decision we think we are trying to make is not the decision we are actually making.

I’ve found problem restatement particularly useful when considering future plans. Right now I am focusing on making What I want to Do With My Life happen, so this exercise is useful in helping me refocus energies.

What’s the current problem?

Start with a definition of the current problem. For me the problem is:

• How can I build this blog, work on decyder and complete applications to Ycombinator and the Peace Corps before the end of September all while working hard at my normal job?

Paraphrase

Paraphrase the problem. This is sort of like brainstorming with the question/problem as the focus.

• What can I do to make sure everything gets done?
• Why do I overload myself with so much work?
• Who would I have to be to accomplish my goals this month?

Reverse the Problem

Consider the reverse of the problem. This works by telling you exactly what things you can do to make sure you don’t solve your problem.

• How can I not get everything done that I need to this month?
  • be lazy (especially watching TV)
  • get distracted by less relevant tasks
  • become demoralized and quit

Narrow or expand the focus

Sometimes the reason a problem seems not to have a solution is that it is focused either too minutely or too broadly. Shifting the focus can give you the right perspective.

• How can I be more productive? (more general)
  • focus on the essential tasks
  • reduce distractions
  • emphasize productive time

• How can I build The Decision Strategist?
  • write quality articles with good information
  • be more active in the decision making community
  • see what articles people have found most interesting and emphasize those types of articles

Shift the focus

We adjusted the focus in the last step, now shift the focus. Often problems with no solution turn out to be not correctly focused on the true problem.

• How can I improve my writing?
  • practice
  • develop information resources
  • try writing in different styles
• How can I make my coding more efficient?
  • practice practice practice
  • take the time to understand tutorials
  • try to solve math puzzles
• How can I build income potential as I work toward starting my own business?
  • investigate advertising potential
  • work with potential clients
  • participate in the decision making communities forums (are there any?)

Ask Why?

The last step is to simply ask why. State the problem/question and then ask why. Continue to ask why until you feel satisfied. I usually start with a question updated by the four tasks I’ve just done. That way in incorporates the work I’ve done to try and make the question more accurate.

The question about building income potential is probably the most spot on. Income isn’t the only reason for wanting to do any of the things I am doing, but it is sort of the bottom line, because I need it to do anything else.

• Q: How can I complete the most necessary actions to develop opportunities to generate income?
  • why?
• Because I want to work for myself on the things I find interesting and useful.
  • why?
• Because life is more meaningful and fun when I am doing that.
  • why?
• Because it is difficult to be completely invested when working for someone else on uninteresting things.
  • why?
• Because it is hard to be passionate about work you don’t care about.

As you can see, by the end you can get down to some pretty philosophical statements. But these statements are good, because they help me focus on the real reason I am trying to do all these different things.

To ensure that I am focusing my energies where I should, I am going to examine each task in terms of how much it does to achieve my primary goals, which in this case are to start my own business and be working for myself on interesting things.

I fount a great (and slightly pink) example from a couple years ago of a student using this method to try not to procrastinate located here. If any of you have done this sort of analysis for anything, I’d love to hear about it.

-zot

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 4th, 2007 at 10:11 pm and is filed under Decision Making, Goals, Ideas, Life Purpose, Planning.