Seth's Blog : Decisions as effort

Decisions as effort

Why are we more likely to get tasks done than to take on new initiatives?

Checking something off a to-do list requires far less emotional energy than adding something to the list was in the first place.

As is often the case, “resistance” is the answer.

It’s easy to type a book, hard to write one. That’s because writing one involves making choices.

The effort to perform a task we’ve done before is known in advance. So are the risks. There’s social pressure to do what we promised, and little friction in the way. It’s work, but not challenging.

Initiatives, on the other hand, go the other way around. The effort and repercussions are unknown, and in many settings, the social pressure to accept the status quo is high.

The most important work we do is to make decisions. Decisions don’t seem effortful (turn left or right, say yes or no) but the apparent risk and emotional labor is real. Hard decisions are hard because of the story we tell ourselves about repercussions and responsibility.

Once we acknowledge that taking initiative (which is more accurately described as ‘offering initiative’) requires effort, we can allocate the time and resources to do it well.