- I hate deciding stuff.
I hate it.
I wish a supreme being would just fly down into my life,
I don't know like a manticore and just chose
everything for me; what to wear, what to eat, what to buy,
which Star Wars movie is my favorite.
Eliminating all choice from my life.
I would be the most grateful manticore servant
in the mantiverse.
(upbeat music)
But alas, my life is filled with choices.
And as a perfectionist, every single choice
is an invitation to the anxiety soiree, BYOSB, stress balls.
Dress code: (beep) or business cas-oh no!
And there's no bigger source of choices
spewing at my face than making these videos.
Look at the editing timeline of my previous video,
why do people like getting rich?
Each of these cuts is a choice,
not to mention the layers the clips are on,
the order they're in, what they are,
it's probably thousands of choices
in the pursuit of making sure the video doesn't suck.
Don't get me wrong, I love making these videos.
These are choices that I'm okay with making,
at least until the manticore shows up.
But each choice is draining,
and I only have so much choice juice in a day.
It's probably why I don't like making all the other choices
in my life.
It's called decision fatigue,
and when decision fatigue and perfectionism combined,
it's like the Gatekeeper and the Keymaster in Ghost Busters.
Not only do ghosts fly around New York City
and a weird 80's song plays and Sigourney Weaver floats,
but you get the gozer of decision making:
decision paralysis and that creates procrastination.
And there you stay Puff Marshmallow man.
Who we gonna call?
Craig Busters!
Does that mean I bust Craigs?
I bust myself?
Nevermind.
But we can solve this problem.
I did a bit of research and employed my favorite tool
for solving problems, aside from the dog leg reamer.
It's a really good one;
it really helps me ream stuff.
A list, how to be more decisive.
In order to make better, quicker decisions,
although not all decisions have to be quick.
Sometimes you shouldn't rush into things.
I'm looking at you died blonde hair in college.
I'm not gonna show a picture.
First we need to make guide rails:
points of reference to keep us from flailing about
like a space donkey as no one says.
Good news: to make these guide rails,
all we have to do is think about our favorite subject-
Stardew Valley- ourselves.
One: write down goals and priorities.
Don't worry, nobody has died writing down
their priorities and goals.
Well, they may have, but it was probably for
unrelated reasons.
Here, I'll do it as an example.
My priorities in hierarchy of importance:
one, my family.
If it ever came down to a choice,
I would always choose my family first.
If someone were like, hey, I'll give you a Snickers
but you gotta leave your family forever.
I'd be like, I'm choosing my family.
What size Snickers though?
I just wanna know.
Two, health: I wanna exercise, I wanna eat right
so that I live longer so that I am around my family more
and I have more opportunity to eat Snickers
in moderation, in a way that is not unhealthy.
Three, makin' stuff.
This could also technically be "career"
and this complicates things because
I need to do this to make money
so that I can provide for my family and for my health
and for my Snickers.
This video is not sponsored by Snickers.
But hey, Snickers, if you're interested,
that's great, I have a family to support.
Now goals on the other hand are more specific.
Something you can celebrate like scoring a point in soccer,
or to you, Nigel, football.
I have one non-US viewer; his name's Nigel.
Hi Nigel.
I forget, what do they call scoring a point in soccer?
- [Announcer] Goal!
- It's not gonna come to me.
Anyway scoring a point is the goal.
You're not gonna celebrate a priority.
Like that would be like--
- [Announcer] Athletic ability is important to me!
- One, get one million subscribers.
I am so close, guys, so close.
And when I get it, I'll quit.
(laughing) Just kidding, I'll wait to sell the channel.
(laughing) Just kidding again.
Like, subscribe, hit the bell,
be a good person, call your mother.
Two, make a good movie,
I just wanted to do that for a while.
And the keyword here is good.
It would be easy to make a crappy movie.
I guess the keyword would be movie,
'cause otherwise it would just be make a good.
Anyway, three, get and stay fit.
This goal could be more specific.
I do have specific things in mind,
but I don't wanna get into that.
I don't have time right now;
I'm making a video about how to make decisions.
Four, become the all seeing all knowing
space baby at the center of the universe.
This one's just obvious; who doesn't want that?
Okay now that we've developed the roots of our decision tree
we can decide which branches it will sprout
fruit or something.
Second on the list of how to be more decisive:
reduce or remove small decisions.
This could go a long way to reduce decision fatigue.
Figure out the decisions that are just unimportant;
things that you don't need to do or you could just have
a routine so you don't have to think about it.
You'll notice that I've been wearing the same
clothes for years.
I don't have a very large wardrobe,
and I don't put any thought into what I'm putting on
in the morning.
It has to meet two priorities.
One, keeps me warm enough.
Two, covers my naughty bits.
Some of you will remember I used to drive
a rusty 91 Corolla for like 10 years in the 2000's.
I just didn't feel like deciding on a new car.
Every single day I eat pretty much the same thing,
so I don't have to think about what to eat.
Eliminating all these decisions gives me more energy
for all these decisions,
or the decisions while I'm writing a script
to decide where to cut my words that I'm saying right now.
Knowing your goals and priorities first
can help you decide which decisions to remove or reduce
or recycle.
Beware though of always opting out of choosing stuff
when you're with other people.
People don't like being the one making the choice
'cause then they have the blame.
Why did you choose that terrible taco place?
Because you weren't choosing anything!
You have terrible taste in taco places; I blame you hard.
I just chose the first place I saw!
I hate you, I hate your choices.
Best way to avoid this problem is to not be around
other people; it's also a good pandemic policy.
Okay now you're good at making decisions.
Every morning you wake up, you just breeze through
the bull shirt and you're a well-oiled
decision making machine.
But don't actually oil yourself;
that will lead to more choices.
Okay now for the bigger decisions,
the ones that actually matter.
They could be huge like should we have a baby?
Should we buy a house?
Which Stardew Valley farm should we,
you know, stuff that will change your life profoundly
for a long time.
And then there's the less big decisions:
what should my next video be about?
Should I work with this client?
Should I fire Nigel?
Nigel's actually my employee,
but he's always showing up late
what with his commute from Britain and all.
How we decide?
Well that leads to number three on how to be more decisive.
Identify why you're not deciding.
Probably two main reasons why you don't decide things.
Fear and lack of information.
Let's do a little experiment.
I'm going to ask you to decide
what you can't decide right now.
Ready?
Decide right now, Bucko!
If your reaction was (screaming), that means fear.
If your reaction was, what?
That means lack of information.
Or a light Tim Allen impression.
Okay now that you've identified why you're not deciding,
let's move onto solutions.
Four, widen your options.
This comes from the book Decisive, which is a great book.
You may be suffering from what is called narrow framing
or spotlight thinking:
focusing on a few options and not even realizing
that there are many others.
To avoid this, hold your hand in front of your face
and just look at the things and (loud crashing)--
No, no, no, things you should do is be aware of
binary choices: either/or, yes or no.
And there's probably actually many other options.
This was brilliantly illustrated by YouTuber
by the name of Wheezy Waiter in a video
about going to college.
The point is, the answer doesn't have to be a simple
yes or no, it's more complicated, nuanced.
So when you ask, can you tell me,
is going to college worth it?
The answer is, if you don't know the answer,
broaden your options.
Totally unintentional that I'm wearing
this same shirt for the B roll of this video
as I was in that video.
Which shows you, I haven't gotten new clothes.
By reducing it down to a binary choice,
you might be oversimplifying and just glossing over
many other things you could do.
Like if you're trying to decide
should I use the last of my money to buy this
king size Snickers or not?
You should be asking, what can I do with the extra money
if I buy a smaller Snickers?
Then you're bringing in other options
instead of I get this or I get nothing.
Incidentally you ended up buying a smaller Snickers
and some Funyuns, but you're gonna need some breath mints.
You might wanna go look for some extra money in your car.
So if you're faced with a binary choice,
that's a red flag.
Maybe challenge yourself to say what would I do
if neither option were possible?
Like if someone's asking you to marry them
and you can't decide, you could say,
live together first, or open marriage,
or maybe we need to fix your loud chewing first?
Seriously we might need to blend your food
before you eat it like a baby?
In this case, allowing for other options
gets you to try to solve the problems
that are keeping you from saying yes.
All right we've widened your options, now what?
Five, reality test your assumptions.
This is also in the book Decisive.
Basically this means you need to do more
than just will your decision into existence.
There is this one hack that you can do that
scours have been doing for years.
It's called research.
It's a good hack to get smart at stuff.
Depending on what your decision is,
you can read some books, some articles,
ask the social medias, the Twitters, the Quoras,
the Reddits, what's that other website called?
In person; talk to people who have gone through it.
Recognize that you are not alone in this decision.
Two, experiment.
Again, this depends on what your decision is,
but you could do things like act as if
the decision has already been made, and how do you feel?
Shadow someone else who has gone through
a similar experience,
but let them know that you're shadowing.
Unless your goal is to go to jail
'cause you wanna know what going to jail's like.
Build a prototype, like if you wanna make a video
but it's a little weird and you're unsure about it,
put a shorter version up on TikTok first.
Or do what I do, put it up anyway,
and if it's bad, just put up another one real fast.
See how your decision matches up with
your goals and priorities.
Remember those?
See, I made you do those earlier; it had a purpose.
Other than me letting you know about my
one million subscriber goal.
Like, subscribe, hit the bell,
clean your room, practice empathy, comment.
Play devil's advocate, or ask Keanu Reeves to do so
since he has experience.
Although, warning, I've been trying, he's very unavailable.
Use the 10/10/10 rule.
Take some time to really picture how you'll feel
10 minutes after the decision is made,
10 months, 10 years.
When I do this, it usually becomes apparent
that the decision isn't as important as I thought it was.
Or if it still is,
I can manage if it was the wrong decision.
Or it becomes apparent that these are things
I need to do right now.
Like I wish I would've run this experiment
when I was deciding what to put in my greenhouse
in Stardew Valley.
I would have found and planted ancient seeds,
I'd have enough money for a return scepter by now.
Step outside yourself and be an objective observer.
This is useful because objective observers
are un-feeling jerks and it can eliminate emotion
from the equation.
I have an advantage 'cause I can use
unfeeling jerk clone.
Should I say I'm gonna go to Carl's wedding
and postpone my meeting with Mr. Big?
(beep) Carl, you barely know him.
Mr. Big's gonna make big things happen for you!
But I'll feel bad.
(mockingly) but I'll feel bad.
Feeling are only good for one thing:
when someone goes like this to your knee like that.
Ah that feels good.
You're right, I'm not gonna go.
But I am kinda hungry.
Eating doesn't achieve dreams; get to work!
Okay maybe don't be quite that harsh,
but you get the idea.
Six, set a time limit.
Running experiments can be good,
but you risk running into the overthink sphinx;
nemesis of the manticore decidore.
There's a bunch of things you can do:
mark it down in a calendar,
tell a friend to punch you in the face with a text reminder.
Draft up a fake contract with deadlines and sign it.
Honestly what keeps me productive on this channel
is real deadlines created by sponsors.
This video could've taken me months to make,
or maybe I wouldn't have even made it
because my perfectionism would've gotten in the way.
But there's a contract,
try to figure out some sort of external force
to impose a time limit like that.
Seven, embrace failure.
Ah, hello darkness my old friend.
Failure from the wrong choice probably won't be
as bad as you think.
Or maybe you're faced with two good choices
and you're just worried about which one is better.
And that can paralyze you.
But it's likely you will never even know which one is better
because you won't know what would have been.
And it's also likely in this win,
maybe win a little better scenario,
it doesn't matter what you choose.
Choosing sooner is the best option.
Perfect is the enemy of the good.
But failure could happen.
If it happens, learn from it, troubleshoot.
- Ow! - Ah, you see?
- And you gain experience points you would not have had
had you not chosen, unless you restore your saved game.
Also you can conduct what is called a pre mortem.
- I'm not dead.
- He says he's not dead. - Yes he is.
- No I'm not!
- Have contingency plans before you fail, have a plan B.
Picture how it would feel to fail to protect your ego.
I think I've been hardwired since birth
to assume failure before I try anything.
That probably gives me confidence issues.
But it also is what makes me a meticulous writer and editor.
I constantly try to anticipate what people
are going to hate about what I say
or what I am gonna say wrong.
Then when they do say that, I'm like yeah, I knew it,
I'll just try to be better next time.
Not saying you should always assume
you're gonna fail like I do,
but anticipate the possibility of failure.
Here's an exercise to get over perfectionism
and fear of failure.
Fail at something, just intentionally do something crappy.
Write a stupid poem, draw a dumb picture,
maybe publish a really terrible story
under a pseudonym and see what people say about it.
I'm gonna draw a terrible picture right now.
It's gonna be of a bunny.
Yep, it's that great.
That's my bunny, very thin necked bunny,
I think his head's gonna fall off.
Obviously I drew this tattoo.
So yeah, just intentionally fail
over and over and over again.
Now while wearing a different shirt,
I'd like to thank the sponsor of this video,
Curiosity Stream.
Oh the logo doesn't stay up there long enough.
Here's an image.
Darn conveniently fast loading app.
You heard of stream of consciousness?
Well it's like that but it's stream of curiousness
in the form of thousands of documentaries,
non-fiction titles, and pretty much any subject
you can imagine.
Well not every subject, Nigel, I know what you can imagine.
They got cute animals, quantum physics,
Iberian lynxes, science, society, history,
and you can check it all out if you're curious.
One thing I've enjoyed is calculating Ada,
countess of computing.
Curious.
Remember that previous video I did
How to Stop Procrastination with the 10 minute rule
in which I attempted to write a song
about Ada Lovelace, the great mathematician,
well this is the perfect research.
So if you're curious, you can go to
curiositystream.com/wheezywaiter
and you get the first 31 days free.
And after that it's only $2.99 a month; that's ridiculous.
And there's a $20 a year plan,
which makes it less than two dollars a month, what?
Watch a bunch of stuff about math on here
and you'll know what I'm talking about.
And you'll know that many of us spend way more
on other streaming services and you learn way less,
depending on your definition of learning,
like if you watch every episode of Real Housewives,
I guess you'll learn a lot about those housewives.
They're so real, you know?
Where do I watch it, Craig?
Many platforms: the Rokus, the Androids, the iOSs,
the Xboxes, Chrome Cast, Amazon Fire, Kindle, Apple TV.
So you can check it out by clicking the link below
to get the first 31 days for free.
Curious.
That's it, I hope all these tools help you become
more decisive.
conclusionary statement of some kind.
I couldn't decide what to say here.
I'm not sure if I mentioned it yet,
but I'm getting very close to a million subscribers.
You can click there to subscribe, hit the bell,
you can support me on Patreon
where I do a monthly live stream
and make a video every single weekday for patrons,
publish scripts and notes from my videos
so you can see all the decisions that didn't make it
and other stuff.
And how to stop procrastinating playlist
since this is the second video on the topic,
YouTube thinks you'll like that video.
Thanks for watching.