Ray Dalio turned his everyday decisions into systems. He started by compiling the reasons for each choice. Then he aligned the reasoning with the category it applies to. Because there are fever types of decisions than there are decisions to make, he could streamline decision making.

Finally, he leveraged the power of computers. Algorithms don’t have biases, they don’t get emotionally attached, you can back test them, you can collaborated on them, and you can easily change them. To put it another way, computers are the ideal method for systemic decision making.

This approach is often underused. Few people analyze their actions and even fewer make steps to catalog them, much less automate them. But this is a practice that compounds, there is exponential benefit here. So what are you waiting for? Start writing down why you make decisions today.

Principles

Book: Principles