One of the fastest ways to simplify your decisions, and reduce time spent on money management is to use the “just one” approach to decision-making. The “just one” principle is the idea that you make a decision one time that then guides you with other decisions moving forward.
The “just one” principle focuses on making a single decision around a theme in order to guide all other decisions within that theme.
When you follow the “just one” principle, you reduce the number of decisions you make, which enables you to focus your decisions on the areas that require focus and energy. Simplifying decisions is vital to helping you make big leaps forward to meaningful growth and success, because your brain uses the same energy deciding the color of cocktail napkin, as it does interest rates for your mortgage. It’s time to give your brain and wallet a break by reducing decisions.
The first step to the “just once” principle is to pause and consider whether there is a theme to the decision you are making. For gifts, you probably know that you have the opportunity to give gifts at different occasions. The theme around a wedding is two people starting a new life together. If someone is having a baby, you have the opportunity to celebrate a new life. The “just one” principle simplifies your decisions, because you decide one time how you will recognize the occasion, which then dictates your approach going forward.
The second step is to decide how you want to approach this particular theme in a way that makes sense for you, and in the case of gifts, for the recipient. For example, my gift for new parents is diapers: If someone is having a baby, I always buy a large box of disposable diapers. I do not include a card, unless my children make one. I do sometimes “add on” to the gift, if there is something special that comes to mind, but otherwise, diapers it is.
Why a signature gift by themes works so well:
#1: It eliminates a repeat decision (a big principle in making money management easy)
#2: Ease: it’s a gift that is easy to find, purchase, and deliver.
#3: It reflects me: my approach to motherhood, namely to stick to the basics.
#4: Less money: by keeping the present to one large (necessary) item, I save money by not purchasing “extras” and I know the general cost.
Most of us would love an easier approach to managing our money, time and energy. Making an advance decision around themes is a way to check all those boxes. The key is to take the time to make those initial decisions. “Just one” is a principle that applies far beyond gifts, and is fundamental to much of how we approach life. Can you think of “just one” area that reflects you in other ways? Here are a few:
- Clothing (do you have a signature style?)
- What you read (one main area/topic that reflects a specific area of interest)
- Relationships (which are you most focused on)
- Time (decide in advance one thing to focus on each morning, week, etc.)
By reducing decisions using the “just one” principle, we free ourselves to focus on what matters this most to us. This in turn, fosters the type of growth we want, but so often miss out on.
Photo by Olia 💙💛 Gozha