The Power of the 60 Second Rule

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Today I want to talk about a tip I picked up from a friend on how to make decisions quickly.

It’s called the 60 second rule.

It basically says you should never take more than 60 seconds for any decision.

If you’re wondering where to go for dinner, don’t waste more than 60 seconds to decide where to go.

If you’re wondering what shoes to wear today, don’t take more than 60 seconds to decide.  It’s not that important.

What about the really important decisions?

Now I know that they’ll be a few readers who are going to write in and say, “What about the really important decisions that have life-and-death consequences?”

I would agree that this does not apply to life-and-death situations.

But I have to ask how often do these things come up?

Maybe 2% of the time?  Probably not even that.

So the 60 second rule applies to the 98% of all decisions that are not that critical.

Too often people find it easier to put off making a decision than to make a choice and move forward.

They make excuses.

Maybe they haven’t analyzed all of the data for a 10th time.  Maybe they don’t feel like they are in the right frame of mind to make a decision or maybe they want to make sure that their friends agree that this is what they should do.

I have a personal experience with this.

A few years ago I was out with some friends on a Saturday night.  We had gone to see a movie and after the movie we were all kind of hungry and decided to get something to eat.

So as we’re walking to our cars we started talking about where we should go.

Someone suggested that we could go out and get some ice cream.  No one really agreed or disagreed with this idea and no one made any other suggestions.

Everyone just kept asking, “Well, what do you want to do?”  Everyone was concerned about proposing something that no one else would like and consequently put off the decision making to someone else.

10 minutes passed and we hadn’t come to any sort of conclusion.

After 30 minutes of indecision… 30 minutes of standing in a cold & wet parking lot and not proposing any real solutions, the five of us decided that we were tired and it was time to call it a night.  So we all went home.

Everyone was hungry but no one was willing to propose what we should do.

One person did propose that we get ice cream but no one was willing to say, “Yes let’s do that” or “No I don’t want ice cream.”

Don’t do this.

98% of all the decisions you will make today don’t really require more than 60 seconds of your time.  Don’t fall into the trap of over analyzing and in the process choosing to do nothing.

Working in Groups

Frequently you will be with the group and so the group will need to make a choice collectively.  In times like this everyone will need to be on board before a decision is reached.

Here are a few tips for helping a group make a decision faster.

If you’re going to lunch as a group and you only have one hour the first thing that you should say is that you have a time limit of one hour.  Remind people of any time constraints and they will be more likely to make decisions faster.

If no one has proposed any solution, then propose one yourself.

Say whatever you think is best and ask for peoples input.  If no one gives any valuable input to your suggestion, then start asking group members, by name, what they think.  Ex. “Fred what do you think of my solution?  Do you think it will work?”

When asking them, be specific.  Don’t ask them simply what they think but rather asked them what they think of your proposed solution.

Don’t be afraid to take a vote.

If no one seems very responsive to your direct inquiries, then ask for a vote.

Say, “I would like to take a vote.  How many people think my solution is a good one?”

If people still don’t seem very responsive then change the question around:

“How many people would be heartbroken if we went with my suggestion?”

This will usually do the trick.

I know some people are concerned that they will come off as pushy if they do this.

Sometimes this is unavoidable but there are a couple things you can do to prevent this.

If anyone actually does propose a solution or give advice, give them your full attention and respond to their suggestion.

If you believe Fred has the best idea then give Fred credit for it.

Say things like “How many people think Fred’s solution is a good one?” and “How many people would be heartbroken if we went with Fred’s suggestion?”

People love getting credit for good ideas.  Doing this will encourage them to speak up in the future when they have a good idea.

Tagged as: marketing, motivational

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