THECOSTCOCONNECTION
Costco Travel offers Costco members many
national and international destinations,
vacation packages, cruises, hotels, rental
cars and more. Executive members can
now earn a 2% Reward up to $1,000 on
quali;ed Costco purchases when they
book hotels, rental cars, cruises and
vacation packages through Costco Travel
(terms, conditions and exclusions apply).
Using the Costco Anywhere Visa Card by
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learn more, click “Travel” at Costco.com or
call 1-877-849-2730.
WORK. PLAY.
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 33
Better
decision-
making
© ESB PROFESSIONAL / SHUTTERSTOCK
BUSINESSCONNECTION
work email when they’re on vacation, but
getting away from work means just that.
co-author of The Resilience Formula.
“They are long-term or short-term.” For
maximum success, focus on the long-term.
Make most decisions in the morning.
As the day wears on, you become more
physically and mentally fatigued. When
that happens, you make poor, impulsive or
otherwise shortsighted decisions, according to scientific research, such as skipping
a workout, overeating or sending an emotional (instead of logical) email to a
co-worker, partner or client. Plan on making important decisions in the morning,
experts say, while reserving afternoons for
meetings and menial tasks.
Seek disconfirming evidence. “Our tendency to only seek out information that
confirms our existing beliefs is one of the
biggest impediments to good decision-making,” says Kristan Wheaton, a
professor of intelligence studies at
Mercyhurst University. Once you come to
a tentative conclusion about something, it
is important to actively look for information that suggests you are wrong, such as if
a stock is expected to rise or not.
“Seeking disconfirming information
is one of the best ways to overcome confirmation bias and improve decision-making,” Wheaton says.
Sleep seven to eight hours a night.
Sleeping less than the recommended
amount, according to medical consensus,
including a ;;;; study published in Annals
of Neurology, impairs decision-making in
two ways. First, tired brains make shortsighted choices more often. Second,
sleep-deprived individuals are less likely to
engage their subconscious, which will
decrease the number of eureka moments
they encounter in a workday.
Ready to change? Good decision! C
Blake Snow is a writer, journalist and author
based in Provo, Utah.
BY BLAKE SNOW
SMART PEOPLE don’t make better decisions because they’re more intelligent.
They make smarter decisions, research
shows, because they do the following.
Remove unimportant decisions. If a
decision doesn’t have an impact on your
work, relationships or resolve, remove it
from consideration. For example, many
CEOs, heads of state and hyper-creative
people wear the same outfit every day in an
effort to conserve mental energy for more
important decisions. “Sound deci-
sion-making works best when distractions
are removed,” says Costco member Dianne
Crampton, a behavioral psychologist.
Focus on long-term choices. For maximum productivity and sustained impact,
your time is better spent on important but
non-urgent tasks, according to the Eisenhower principle, named for President
Eisenhower’s approach to problems. “I
have two kinds of problems,” he said, “the
urgent and the important. The urgent are
not important, and the important are
never urgent.” In other words, developing
future (i.e., non-urgent) sales is easy to put
off, but it’s undeniably critical. “What
most people don’t realize is that decisions
are not good or bad,” says Donna Volpitta,
prised by how new sights, sounds and experiences will help you gain a new perspective
that can improve your work efforts.
Get backup
You might think you’re indispensable,
but, really, no one is. Once you’ve decided
to take time off, find someone to fill in.
Many companies and organizations cross-train employees so they can step in during
vacation times. Put an “out of office” message on your email with the contact information for your backup.
Unplug
It’s almost impossible for some
employees to resist the urge to check their
The ability to work from anywhere doesn’t
mean you should. Leave the laptop and
cellphone behind and go watch a beautiful
sunset, kayak a lazy river, climb a moun-
tain trail or just be present in the moment.
Americans are using more vacation
than in the past two years. As employers
and employees work together to prioritize
communication and planning in regard to
vacations, positive change will continue. C
Sally Benford is a writer based in Phoenix.
OUR DIGITAL EDITIONS
Click here to watch a video on the
bene;ts of taking vacation for employees
and employers. (See page 10 for details.)
