Remember is to recall, as decide is to plan
People are notoriously bad at remembering things.
Which is why designers of all things go to such great lengths to help us recall what we need to remember.
That’s why most apps on your phone behave the same way. With the same icons, the same patterns, and same loops.
It’s also why multiple choice tests are, well, multiple choice. Because it’s easier to recall the right answer than it is to fill in the blank.
I believe that making decisions follows a similar pattern.
It’s much harder to make a decision in the moment than it is to plan on making one beforehand, and simply following through.
After all, that’s all a habit really is. An (unconscious) decision made following a precise trigger in a precise environment.
You don’t have to decide to ‘put on’ your seat-belt when you get in your car, once it’s a habit. But it’s a decision you make nonetheless, because you can also deliberately choose not to put it on, if you’d like.
Planning to make a decision, in advance, works the same way.
Because by planning, you’ve already made the decision. You don’t have to activate any ‘higher-order thinking’ to follow-through.
All you have to do is follow your plan at the appropriate time, regardless of how you feel. And that doesn’t take deciding, it takes discipline.
Of acknowledging the decision you already made, and, more importantly, why you made it. Of recognizing that the person who made that decision — presumably, your best self — made that decision because you want what’s best for you.
Of course, all this depends on making those decisions in advance. Because, if you wait to make them later, following through on your decision won’t be the decision you’re making. Instead, you’ll be deciding on deciding to follow-through.
Making the choice to eat a Cobb salad with chicken for lunch is loads different than deciding whether or not to eat a healthy lunch.
Hence, the onus and the benefit of making those decisions in advance. Of planning, in detail, what you’re going to do before you need to do it.
Because that is something worth planning on. In fact, it might be the most important thing you do all morning.