Title: I&#x27;m incredibly fortunate to have a chairman on our board who brings so much clarity of thought to the business.<p>He&#x27;s unemotional yet thoughtful. If he doesn&#x27;t have an immediate answer for something, he instinctively understands how to search for the answer. He has a natural sense of the real priority of work and discussions.<p>So I asked him for some of his favourite brain hacks...simple tricks he uses when he has a mental challenge to overcome. A couple of his insights were very useful to me, so I thought I&#x27;d share them here and ask HN for their personal brain hacks in response.<p><i></i> Artificial deadlines <i></i><p>He has a clever technique for bringing tough choices to a conclusion and avoiding procrastination. This is especially useful for life changing decisions such as moving country or taking that new job.<p>To put an end to the decision making process he sets a deadline for the decision to be made. Say 6pm on Monday. At five minutes to 6 he usually doesn&#x27;t know the answer but in those 5 minutes something clicks, and by 6pm the answer is always there.<p><i></i> 10&#x2F;10&#x2F;10 rule <i></i><p>This is something I&#x27;ve read before but he applies this.  The 10&#x2F;10&#x2F;10 is the framing of the outcome of a decision across three timeframes:<p>How will he feel about the outcome 10 minutes from now?
How about 10 months from now?
How about 10 years from now?<p>The answers to these questions provide a different perspective and usually help him to find the correct answer without being misguided by circumstances at the time of making the decision.<p><i></i> This will all be over by 6pm <i></i><p>If there&#x27;s an important meeting with stakeholders, a scary appointment with the doctor or a tough chat with an employee - he simply keeps in mind the fact that by &quot;X time&quot;, the thing will have passed and won&#x27;t matter anymore.<p>If it doesn&#x27;t matter after X time, chances are it probably doesn&#x27;t matter now.<p>Edit: Formatting.
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