30. The No 7s/10s Allowed Rule

In the last blog, we had a look at Opportunity Cost as a concept when it comes to decision making.

Appreciate that that may sound a bit fancy (yes, or wanky), but it really wasn’t (well, it wasn't fancy anyway). The Opportunity Cost of a decision is basically what we give up when we choose one thing over another.

For example, let’s say we decided to have a boozy night out instead of a quiet night in. The Opportunity Cost is the good stuff we sacrificed in order to get on the sesh. Things like feeling fresh, not pissing away a load of money, and not having 3 Big Macs at 2am.

When it comes to our overall health and wellbeing, I think this is an important concept. Knowing the Opportunity Cost of a decision can basically help us use our time in a way that’s as beneficial as possible, which you’d like to think would be a predominantly positive thing.

And whereas the previous blog was a slightly drawn out look at this idea (which, yes, I appreciate I’m on the verge of doing again), you’ll be delighted to hear that this time, that’s not the aim.

In this post, although we’re staying in a similar territory, we’re keeping things shorter and snappier. As opposed to a broad concept, we’re going to have a very quick look at a specific decision-making tactic.

This is something I came across on (slash stole from) Tim Ferriss’s podcast a couple of years ago. Shamefully, I can’t actually remember the guest who said it, but I think it may have been author and entrepreneur Derek Sivers. The idea didn't have a name per se, but for the sake of this post, let’s call it ‘The No 7s/10s Allowed Rule’. Catchy, right!?

The point of this idea is to help us to make better decisions when it comes to how we spend our time. It’s one that particularly resonated with me, as I do find that the older I get (and the more the finite nature of life becomes apparent), this is something I think about and value more and more.

It’s a fairly straightforward idea, and it starts with us simply giving a score out of 10 when faced with a decision on how to spend our time. For example, let’s say we had a social event coming up, we'd have to rate the prospect of said event out of 10.

With one catch, we’re not allowed to give it a 7.

7/10 is the classic fence sitting non-committal score. It basically translates to us saying something like “yeah, but meh”. We’d probably head along, but without being particularly enthused by it, and could think of various other things we’d rather be doing with our time.

I think this idea is particularly relevant for people-pleasers, who can be prone to committing to things we don't really want to do, but do so at the risk of upsetting others.

A degree of ruthlessness is needed here I suppose, as this 'Rule' forces us to decide whether we’re actually keen (8 or above), or whether we’re not (6 and below). This gives us our answer whether we get involved or not. 8 or above we’re in, 6 or below we’re out. Decision made.

Although admittedly not always applicable, and there’s often a bit more nuance to a decision than that, I do think it’s a quick, effective and generally handy tool to sense check if we’re spending our time how we want.

Night out? Social event? Meal out? Weekend plans? Asked to be a guest on the groundbreaking podcast Howie & Pals? Get the scorecard out, and get those 6s in the bin.

It feels like a lot of us tend to say yes to too many things, and fill our lives with mediocre stuff that we're impartial to. Which, over time, can leave us feeling a bit... well, shit.

I've found this idea to be helpful in really getting a gauge on how much I want to do something, which can therefore allow us to spend our finite time on this planet slightly more how we want to.

As you'd like to think that that would probably be a positive thing, I thought I'd share in case it resonates with you too.

Happy scoring. Just no 7s.