Live with a Decision before Announcing It
A personal decision-making technique: after making a major choice, wait at least a day before sharing it, ideally writing down your reasoning to review later. This pause helps surface hidden flaws, emotional misgivings, and assumptions you might otherwise miss.
THE IDEA
Many leaders want to announce a decision the moment they’ve made it to appear decisive, but announcing right away can lock them in prematurely. The rule: make major decisions and then sleep on them before telling anyone. However, sleeping on decisions alone isn’t enough. Before bed, write a note explaining why you made the decision. Writing exposes the reasons to review. When you read the note in the morning, you’ll often see flaws that weren’t obvious the day before—perhaps you didn’t understand the problem, or the decision no longer feels right.
Before announcing, mentally rehearse what would happen next. You may notice an assumption to test—for example, whether an employee being considered for promotion has demonstrated the needed meeting-leadership skills. A pause can reveal the question; checking the assumption requires evidence. The silence also lets you check your emotional response: does it feel good in your bones? If something feels off, that’s a signal to dig deeper before going public. Keeping it to yourself leaves the door open to undo or adjust.
When to use it
A founder is about to pivot the product. She writes her reasoning, sleeps on it, and the next morning spots a flawed market assumption, saving the company from a costly mistake.
A manager decides to restructure the team. During a morning run before announcing, she realizes she overlooked a team member’s hidden strengths and adjusts the plan accordingly.
A consultant is set to accept a high-stakes client offer but waits a day, feeling a knot in his stomach. Reflecting on that sensation, he uncovers misaligned values and declines gracefully.
A product lead drafts a major feature release plan. Living with it privately overnight reveals that two dependencies are too risky, so she delays to gather more data.
FROM THEORY TO EVERYDAY LIFE
In practice
The Regretted Email
You draft a sensitive email late at night and feel an urge to send it immediately. By waiting until morning, you re-read it with fresh eyes and realize the tone was too harsh or the logic flawed, saving a relationship.
Testing a Promotion Decision
You decide to promote an employee but remain uncertain about their leadership skills. Before announcing, you arrange a chance to observe them leading a meeting. The observation adds evidence about readiness and support needs, though it cannot settle the whole assessment by itself.
A MOMENT TO REFLECT
Put it to work.
Before announcing your next big decision, take 24 hours. What assumptions might you want to test during that time?
Think of a past decision you regretted announcing too early. How might waiting have changed the outcome?
When a decision feels off after a night’s sleep, what concrete steps can you take to explore that intuition?
CONTINUE THE CONVERSATION
Source texts
- Clear Thinking Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary Results (Shane Parrish)