Are you one of those people who wants to make all the right decisions?

Suppose you were about to buy something like a car or a TV, would you do your homework? Would you ask your friends, search for options online, seek recommendations from resources such as Consumer Reports, and read all the opinions you can find? Would you test drive several cars and carefully compare their features, maybe even right down to the seat-back pockets, number of USB ports, and mpg to the tenth of a mile?

How about at work? Do you solicit multiple opinions before taking a stand? Are you worried about being right? Eager to please? Or at least not ruffle feathers?

How about in a restaurant? Do you read the entire menu searching for the perfect meal? Or maybe you peruse many menus and ratings before you can even choose a restaurant?

Do any of these sound like you?

If yes, I have great news for you! You are a perfect candidate to save mega time. You could be the person who makes that car decision in under an hour. You could pick your meal almost instantly and, instead, devote your precious time to the people with whom you chose to share the meal. You could waltz right through those business decisions with confidence and move on to the next topic. How does that sound? Think of the time and stress you could save!

Time and energy are limited resources. For all of us. To be happy, effective, and productive people, we need to spend our time and energy on things that matter. We need to avoid thoughts and activities that simply drain away those precious resources. Activities like unnecessary and dragged out decisions.

So here is my tip for shrinking the time spent on decisions. Start every decision with the following questions?

1. How important is this decision? How much time is it worth?

Unimportant decisions deserve very little of your precious time. In many cases, a coin toss is adequate. In others, all you need to do is to satisfy a few minimum requirements. Identify your minimum requirements, choose, and move on.

2. Are there multiple, maybe even many, reasonable options?

We have too many options these days. You might think options would improve our quality of life, but they don’t. Instead, numerous options leaves us staring at rows and rows of products as diverse as TVs, cereal, deodorant, clothes, marketing ideas, software packages, cars, and more. Tons of options. And the result is fatigue. More time wasted on decisions. Delayed decisions. Paralysis.

The good news is that many of the options you face are essentially the same. Identify your minimum requirements and grab the first option that satisfies those requirements. Even decisions that seem big and important, like buying a car, for instance, can be quick. Factors like repair records and safety are no longer the differentiators they once were. Figure out what features are most important to you (size, mileage, color), get a recommendation, take a test drive to ensure comfort, and be done.

Seriously. In these two situations when the decision doesn’t matter much or when the options are so similar, decide and be done! Practice speed. Save your time for more rewarding activities.

There is one exception. When choosing desserts, read every word. Relish each description. Search for more and more options. With any luck, you will hit decision fatigue and realize none of the desserts could possibly live up to the cumulative vision you have created! At which point you can settle for vicarious flavor in place of all those calories!