Ali Abdaal
November 30, 2022
10 Questions to Make Better Life Decisions
TL;DR
A framework of 10 strategic questions helps you make more intentional life decisions by understanding your values, testing assumptions, and overcoming overthinking and fear.
Key Takeaways
- 1Ask "In one year, will I regret not starting today?" to overcome procrastination on meaningful projects
- 2Create a mental board of advisors from people whose thinking you admire to gain perspective on difficult choices
- 3Treat major decisions as experiments to reduce pressure and gather real-world data before fully committing
- 4Base decisions on identity and values rather than external metrics—ask "Do I want to be the sort of person who does X?"
- 5Use Tim Ferriss's Fear Setting exercise to uncover how you've likely overblown worst-case scenarios in your mind
- 6Filter choices through energy levels: prioritize decisions that energize you over those that drain you
- 7Recognize that inaction carries risks just as much as action does
Notable Quotes
“in one year's time will I regret not having started today”
— Ali Abdaal
“the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago the second best time is now”
— Ali Abdaal (quoting common wisdom)
“I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself not the life others expected of me”
— Top regret of the dying
“if you wait for 100 certainty you're just going to end up wasting your life away broadly not making any decisions”
— Ali Abdaal
Chapters
1. Introduction: Why Better Decision-Making Matters
Daily choices profoundly affect our happiness and life trajectory, yet we rarely develop decision-making skills. Better choices are those more intentional, conscious, and aligned with core values.
2. Question 10: The One-Year Regret Test
Ask yourself if you'll regret not starting something today in one year's time. This helped the speaker launch his YouTube channel five years ago despite initial doubts about timing.
3. Question 9: Mental Board of Advisors
Formulate a mental board from people—living or dead—whose thinking you admire. Mentally ask what they'd say about your decision; this creates useful distance and clarity.
4. Question 8: The Risk of Doing Nothing
Inaction is also a decision with consequences. Evaluate what risks or losses you face by not taking action, not just the risks of acting.
5. Question 7: Core Values and the Deathbed Test
Identify your core values and ask what you'd regret on your deathbed. The five top regrets of the dying—living for others, overworking, suppressing feelings, neglecting relationships, not allowing happiness—guide intentional choices.
6. Question 6: Certainty and Threshold Analysis
Ask how certain you are and how certain you need to be. Waiting for 100% certainty guarantees inaction; often 30% confidence is enough to test an idea.
7. Question 5: Treating Decisions as Experiments
Reframe major decisions as experiments to reduce pressure and test hypotheses at lower cost. The speaker tested a part-time medicine scenario by picking up emergency shifts rather than committing to a residency program.
8. Question 4: Identity-Based Decision Making
Ask "Do I want to be the sort of person who does X?" Identity-based goals and decisions lead to better outcomes than task-based ones.
9. Question 3: Energy and Fulfillment
Filter decisions through whether they energize or drain you. Declining lucrative corporate work in favor of authentic content creation is an example of prioritizing energizing work.
10. Questions 2 and 1: Quitting Framework and Fear Setting
Stephen Bartlett's quitting framework helps decide whether to persist or quit based on whether something is hard (worth the reward?) or sucks (can you fix it?). Tim Ferriss's Fear Setting exercise reveals overblown worst-case scenarios and mitigation strategies.
Key People & Entities
- Derek Sivers
- Musician and entrepreneur; member of speaker's mental board of advisors
- Tim Ferriss
- Author and entrepreneur; member of speaker's mental board of advisors; creator of Fear Setting exercise
- Ryan Holiday
- Author and stoic philosopher; member of speaker's mental board of advisors
- Cal Newport
- Author of 'Deep Work'; member of speaker's mental board of advisors
- Stephen Bartlett
- Author of 'Happy Sexy Millionaire'; creator of quitting decision framework
- James Clear
- Author of 'Atomic Habits'; recommended for understanding habits and decision-making
- Heights
- Brain care supplement company sponsoring the video
Glossary
- Mental Board of Advisors
- A set of people (real or imagined) whose thinking and work you admire, which you mentally consult to gain perspective on decisions
- Identity-Based Goals
- Goals and decisions framed around the type of person you want to become, rather than specific tasks or outcomes
- Fear Setting
- A framework by Tim Ferriss that involves identifying fears, worst-case scenarios, and mitigation strategies to overcome decision paralysis
- Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
- A simplified version of a product or service designed to test a hypothesis with minimal resources before full commitment
- Risk Aversion Bias
- A cognitive bias where people tend to avoid potential losses more strongly than they pursue equivalent gains