Hats, haircuts, tattoos and doors

We’ve all been there: debating a single word in an email or spending ages coming up with the name of a project or even a variable. We treat these choices like permanent, life-altering commitments when most are actually just “hats.”

Lots of people have come up with frameworks to help the decision making process but two of the better known ones are:

• James Clear’s Hat/Haircut/Tattoo analogy and
• Jeff Bezos’s One-Way versus Two-Way Door

These two frameworks pit decisions against reversibility and permanence. James Clear breaks down a decision into how long you would have to live with the decision, hence hat, haircut or tattoo. Jeff Bezos breaks it down into how easy is it to reverse the decision: a two way door is easy, a one way door is either impossible or at least extremely difficult, painful and/or expensive.

However they align really nicely:

Hat Decisions (Two-Way Doors): If you don’t like the hat, you can just take it off. The reversal cost is near zero and you can decide in seconds.

Haircut Decisions (Two-Way Doors): A bad haircut is annoying and potentially embarrassing, but it grows back in weeks. It is low cost, but requires time. You can decide in hours or days.

Tattoo Decisions (One-Way Doors): Once the ink is in, it is permanent. To reverse this involves extreme pain and expense. These can/should require weeks of deliberation.

One of the biggest productivity killers is treating a “haircut” like a “tattoo.” You can change a website layout in an afternoon, but you can’t easily reverse a signed ten-year merger. High performers can move fast because they recognize that 90% of their day involves reversible “Hat” and “Haircut” choices.

Next time you are stuck in “analysis paralysis,” ask yourself:

• How easily can I go back? If you fail, can you return to exactly where you are now?
• How long will the impact be? Will you live with the result for a day, a month, or a decade?

The “Rule”: If it’s a Hat, just do it. If it’s a Haircut, set a 24-hour deadline. Save your soul-searching for the Tattoos.