Stevea Robbins here, and welcome to the Get It Done guys, quick and dirty tips to work less and do more.

Today's tip is about decisions.

The bottom line, if it costs more to research and make a decision than the impact that decision will actually have,

flip a coin instead.

In my first corporate job, we needed a laser printer for our programmers.

The executives met to discuss it.

After all, a $600 laser printer would only save 12 programmers' hours' worth of hassle.

The marketing department had one, true, but then they needed one.

Otherwise, how could they print drafts of the billboard they erected celebrating the company's quote-unquote great beginnings? In the end, they didn't buy the printer. The programmers

would just have to make do, and at night I lay awake

wondering, was this somehow my fault? In retrospect, perhaps I overestimated my own importance,

but I didn't overestimate the decision's importance. The decision not to buy the printer

took four executives, three one-hour meetings to make. The executives made about $100,000 a year

apiece, which is $50 an hour, multiply by four executives and three hours, and we're talking

$600 worth of management time to make that decision. They should have just spent the $600 on the

darn printer. This was the first time I saw that decisions cost money.

And if it costs more to make a decision than the amount you're deciding about,

it's more sensible just to flip a coin or spend the money without further discussion.

That's why some businesses don't even require receipts for small expenses when employees travel.

It's cheaper to reimburse $5 than to handle

the paperwork to document the expense. In my example, the cost was the executive salaries,

but indirect costs can mount up as well. The cost of delays while the decisions being made,

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