Before you make a move, first count to 10

A pause to reflect can take the emotion out of decisions

They say the best ideas are often the simplest. I recently learned of a clever but simple aid to decision-making. I almost missed the “10-10-10 Rule” since it was in a book by Suzy Welch with a far-from-simple title: A Fast and Powerful Way to Get Unstuck in Love, at Work, and with Your Family.

The idea is that when you face a conflict about a decision or action, in work or in your private life, you should take a moment to ask yourself:

How will I feel about it in 10 minutes?

How will I feel about it in 10 months? How will I feel about it in 10 years?

The 10-10-10 method works to enable better decision-making by training your brain to think beyond short-term emotions.

The author says your brain can be taught to automatically analyse second- and third-order consequences of different actions, rather than considering just the here and now.

It is often hard to maintain perspective when facing a thorny

I have always considered Warren Buffett’s suggestion that you imagine the stock market will close for 10 years. Would you want to own this investment for 10 years, having no way of selling it in that time?

The 10-10-10 rule is better because even with a high-quality crystal ball, the outlook over a decade is cloudy and a lot can happen in the medium term — from 10 minutes to 10 years!

The rule can also help once you’ve bought an investment. So often, a share price will reflect short-term noise which can generate short-term emotion, to our detriment.

If a company announced an earnings shortfall which resulted in an immediate share price fall, we might be tempted to sell before the price fell further.

But, in pausing to ask how we might feel about this short-term earnings blip in 10 months, or 10 years, we might be more inclined to buy than to sell. Particularly if we stop to consider why earnings had fallen; perhaps it was to shore up future earnings.

To me, the magic of 10-10-10 is that it allows perspective in any decision as to the insignificance of downsides and the potential size of upsides — a simple but powerful idea all can employ.