“Messes come from postponing an indecision.”

This was a quote from Tiago in today’s BASB session.

Now that I’m thinking about it, not sure if it makes total sense. Should be more like, “Messes come from indecision” or “Messes come from postponing a decision.”

Anyway, the point is so true.

When my room was a mess (Related

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Found missing item, cleaned up room), I was faced with indecision about the best way to tackle the cleanup. I was also at a loss of how to deal with the missing item.

In my digital space, when it becomes cluttered with desktop icons, browser bookmarks, browser tabs, emails, or unsorted second brain notes, it all comes down to an indecision of where to organize them.

That’s why systems are so important, they take out the mental work of figuring this out, freeing up bandwidth for other things, and preventing decision fatigue.

Even when a decision has been made about how to organize or clean up a mess, the action itself still has to be taken. So messes are also about a lack of action. But lack of action is also indecision. You have to decide when you’ll take action. Even if you choose a specific time tomorrow to do it, that doesn’t guarantee you’ll follow through with your decision at that time. The decision for action is now, in place of distraction.