The best way to make decisions? Try this.

Click here to access this week's Weekly Topic

On average, humans make over 200 decisions a day. (No wonder they're so hard to make when we're tired!) Planning what we're going to do in advance—"If this happens, I'll do this"— can help make those in-the-moment "Should I eat allllll of the leftover holiday cookies?" choices a whole lot easier.

What to do: Create a guideline ahead of time so you aren’t wasting any energy making a good-for-you-decision in the moment.

1. Identify a scenario

Pinpoint a scenario where you often make an in-the-moment decision you wish you didn’t. Maybe you want to eat more fruit, but always end up heading to the cabinet for cookies instead.

2. Decide what to do

Determine ahead of time what you actually want to do. It could be that you want to eat a piece of fruit while watching TV after dinner.

3. Create a guideline

Use your answers to one and two to fill-in-the-blanks of this sentence. “When ______ happens, I’ll do ______.” Your version might be “When I sit down to watch TV, I’ll bring a piece of fruit with me.”

4. Check yourself

Review your guideline to make sure it’s truly doable. It shouldn’t require a lot of effort or be hard to stick to—that way, it’ll be more likely you’ll use it. The more you use it, the more second nature it’ll become.

What’s your implementation intention strategy? Share it in your Connect Studio Group!