Often, we prefer to avoid making mistakes and create algorithms (of sorts) composed of unique sets of values, resources, and trusted relationships to ease the decision making process.
While a multifaceted strategic assessment seems arduous, it can offer substantial benefits. The most noteworthy advantage of creating a helpful decision making matrix is the introduction of nuance and longevity. Sometimes though, making a decision according to how we uniquely inform our assessments can introduce a paralyzing amount of variables. Not every decision is best made by virtue of a mental (or literal) committee.
For instance, certain ways to spend our time become so intrinsically valuable that regardless of where we find ourselves they are worth working into our schedules. The sort of decisions that seem to transcend variables that always make the cut despite how thoroughly they are considered become something different, they become policies.
These ways of spending our time are best regarded as polices because they’re not personal and they’re (intentionally) not able to be changed at a whim. Common policies include things like a weekly all staff, taking off your shoes as you enter someone’s home, or washing your hands before you cook a meal. Polices exist because, regardless of the space and time adhering to them will (likely) result in a fruitful future.
Fortunately, we can create policies for ourselves, families, friends, and practices. We can create policies that become impersonal, that exist for the good of our group or ourselves regardless of how we feel about them at the moment. Ultimately, policies are important because they serve as a shortcut to making decisions that will matter most. When (inevitably) our time becomes divided we can more easily find our way back by simply adhering to predetermined policies we can no longer afford to breach.
Unless we become motivated to participate in ways that go beyond the bezels of our screens it’s unlikely we’ll actually see the things we vicariously cheer on made real. Media tycoons would have us believe that watching is the same as doing, but unfortunately (for them) we inhabit a physical world and tactile progress is still the prevalent purveyor of actually getting things done.