Ask these 3 questions before any big decision, a professor swears by it

Before committing to any choice, big or small, there is a simple three-question framework that some of the best minds in the world swear by. It’s called the 10-10-10 rule, developed by Suzy Welch, a three-time New York Times bestselling author and NYU Stern professor.

The idea is straightforward: before making a decision, ask yourself what the consequences will look like in 10 minutes, in 10 months and in 10 years. Each question pulls a different emotional register. The ten-minute answer is about immediate relief or discomfort, the ten-month answer shows the likely consequences, and the ten-year answer reveals whether the decision really matters in the long run.

According to Welch, the framework applies to almost every field and every kind of decision, from career moves to relationships to everyday dilemmas. A founder can use it to weigh a product pivot. A parent can use it to decide whether to cave on screen time. Someone weighing a job offer with better pay but a worse commute can use the same three questions and arrive somewhere clearer than a pros-and-cons list would take them.

The rule isn’t a universal fix. Some emergencies don’t wait ten minutes, let alone ten years, so quick action is still sometimes necessary. But for the decisions that aren’t time-bound, the framework can cut through the noise. As the idea goes, most people do not lack good judgement, they simply lack the ten seconds it takes to reach it.

Image: Wikimedia Commons/by S Sepp