I’ve been reading Annie Duke’s Thinking In Bets and just finished the chapter where she covers Suzy Welch’s 10-10-10 rule.

The short version: When you have a decision to make, think about the consequences of the decision paths 10 minutes, 10 months, and 10 years later.

It’s a fascinating framework, and as I’ve thought about it this week, I’ve learned a few things:

1. It’s useless for the vast majority of decisions we make – and that’s a good thing. You don’t use the 10-10-10 system to determine if you want pizza or Thai for takeout tonight. If the answers for the 10-month and 10-year questions are “I don’t care” or “I doubt I’ll even remember”, that’s a nudge that fighting for pizza over Thai is not worth your time. 
   
2. Remind yourself that we tend to overestimate short-term adverse effects and underestimate long-term positive effects.
   
3. The marketing of 10-10-10 is excellent. It’s easy to remember. That said, learning how to tweak the future periods of consideration is an advanced way to use this system. Through a 10-10-10 analysis, some decisions may not have an answer, but through a 1 day, 1-year, 40-year lens, become apparent. Tweak as needed

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Annie’s website and links to buy her books
Suzy Welch’s 10-10-10 system