How to make less-bad decisions

I can't say I always use this protocol, but I think of it often enough. Also, 7 other things worth your time.

Yesterday, I wrote about “bad Mondays,” along with questions to ask yourself to determine if you’re just having a down day, or if you’re on the wrong path—especially in the context of your career.

I mentioned a technique called the Mediating Assessments Protocol (MAP), and I was surprised as I was proofreading to realize that I’ve managed, in nearly two years of publishing Understandably, never to have mentioned this construct before.

That’s a shame—but not one that we can’t rectify.

It’s not that I always use MAP, but I do find it useful. And even when I don’t have the discipline to use it correctly, I find it reminds me about the important distinction between making good decisions and being decisive.

Here’s what the technique is about, plus a quick tutorial on how it works—straight from the mind of a Nobel prize-winning economist, and the halls of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Delay your decisions

At the outset, MAP is about making good decisions—even at the expense of mak…