Time is Money but Time to think is Gold

The time we take to make our decision is valued in money. However if this time is a time to think it spares us money. Thinking allows us to make sense of the world around us, it helps us build a perspective of what is happening, and allow us to build a model to interpret things. We are constantly faced with time constraints, deadlines, and end points. We are expected to make decisions on daily basis and on the smallest things in our lives. As Optometrists we decide on the eye health of our patients, as entrepreneurs we decide on strategies, planning, marketing, investing, and purchasing. As household owners we decide on every little piece of furniture, clothes, food, and consumables.

Overtime decision making becomes routine and we forget the factor of thinking. The consequences that develop from such a result include isolating ourselves from the changes in the outside world, assuming infallibility, and completely undermine and eliminate the time allocated to thinking.

there is a saying “A desk is a dangerous place from which to view the world”. That is of course before the time of the internet. However, the idea is that when you isolate yourself behind a desk you immediately become a decision-maker without choices that reflect the outside world. If thinking relates to understanding the world around us, decision-making consists of making a single choice or choosing one scenario among a given number of scenarios. Your decision leads to one course of action among different scenarios. A different decision leads to a different course of action, a different opinion, choice, or output. Isolating yourself from the outside world reduces your sources of information and changes your process of thinking, therefore affects the choices you have from which you select a possible scenario.

Assuming infallibility will make prompt immediate decision-making. Confidence is a very important trait, but as a decision-maker confidence should only be supported by data and facts. As Optometrists, we obtain our confidence in the decisions we make based on the facts, numbers, and answers provided from the patient questionnaire, symptoms, and diagnostics. There is the time involved in retrieving all the information to make a decision. Assuming infallibility leads to eliminating the processing time and leads to quick decisions that are subject to errors.

When a bad decision leads to bad consequences look at correcting one of those three: isolating yourself, assuming infallibility, and not taking time to think.