Categorize weekly decisions as routine or novel — build…
Audit your work week by categorizing each decision as 'routine' (similar decision made before, could use framework) or 'novel' (requires fresh thinking), then for the five highest-frequency routine decisions, draft simple frameworks (default answer, two-option heuristic, or pre-commitment rule) and implement all five within one week.
When This Fires
- During weekly reviews when auditing how you spent decision-making energy
- When you feel decision fatigue despite not making "big" decisions — the cause is usually high-volume routine decisions
- When building personal productivity systems for cognitive offloading (Only automate decisions that are frequent, stable…)
- At the start of any role change, new project, or workflow redesign
Common Failure Mode
Treating all decisions as novel: "Every meeting invitation is different." The meeting topic varies, but the decision structure is the same: does this meeting require my presence? A simple framework ("attend if I'm on the agenda, contributing, or need information from the meeting; decline otherwise") handles 90% of meeting decisions without deliberation.
The Protocol
(1) At the end of one work week, list every decision you remember making. (2) Classify each as routine (you've made a similar decision before and the optimal approach is predictable) or novel (genuinely unique, requiring fresh analysis). (3) For routine decisions, rank by frequency. Which ones recur most often? (4) For the top 5 highest-frequency routine decisions, draft a simple framework: Default answer: "Unless exception X, always do Y." Two-option heuristic: "If A, do X; if B, do Y." Pre-commitment rule: "I have pre-decided that in situation X, I always do Y" (Design pre-commitments when calm to constrain behavior…). (5) Implement all five within one week. The frameworks should each take <5 minutes to design and save multiples of that in avoided deliberation every week.