A handy guide to making more of your limited time

🆗 The simple word “OK” (also “ok” or “okay”) has hidden depths — it’s an interjection, but also an adverb, adjective, and a noun. But please, never use “k” unless you mean someone harm.
Issue #107: Louisiana’s Ten Commandments law, Canva-ification, and evading germs
By

Scott Lamb

With the midpoint of the year just around the corner, it’s a time when many of us are finishing off planning for the second half of the year, be it goal-setting at work or fall scheduling at home.

In yesterday’s issue of this newsletter, we highlighted a primer on making better decisions; today I wanted to highlight a recent decision-making framework from Medium writer

John Gorman

that I really loved. It takes the typical risk vs. reward matrix and alters it just slightly, looking instead at outcomes and stakes.

As Gorman writes, “risk is uncertainty, which means it’s a derivative variable,” so it’s easier to think of possible outcomes for anything you’re working on along a spectrum of likely success to likely failure. Similarly, you can think of how much the outcome matters as going from low (it doesn’t matter at all) to high (it really matters to you!).

The simple way to use the matrix is to keep focused on the higher level options, where the outcome is important and you’ve got a chance of success. I really like the way Gorman breaks down each box (high stakes + unknown outcome = moonshot; unknown outcome + low stakes = heat check), but I loved his insight on how to use this idea over time:

Mastery is moving up the column. (Improving your odds of success.)

Leveling up is moving over a column. (Raising the stakes.)

True excellence and optimal time management, though, means embracing uncertainty. The middle row is where you take your risks. You cannot reach the top row without first slogging it in the middle.

The Gorman Decision Matrix

What else we’re reading

• The new Louisiana law requiring the Ten Commandments to be posted in all public school classrooms raises a lot of legal and theological questions: It will likely end up before the Supreme Court, which struck down a similar law from Kentucky in 1980, and also enshrines a very specific version of the commandments similar to the King James Version, which appeals more to evangelical Christians than other denominations.
• 2024 is a big year for elections globally — over 2 billion voters across 50 countries are expected to go to the polls over the course of the year. This look at voting as an act decision making frames how most of us actually make decisions. However rational we may think we are, “more often than not, what happens is that feelings and beliefs hold the reins.” Also this fascinating little nugget of research: Between 71% and 83% of voters have made their minds up two months before any election, while 12% still haven’t decided by the day before.
• That sleek, simple, bland design you see everywhere from your local coffee shop to your friend’s birthday invite? Call it the Canva-ification of culture — the design tool’s simplicity and ubiquity mean we are all living in a Canva-template-world.

Your daily dose of practical wisdom: on avoiding infectious diseases this summer

Advice from a microbiologist on avoiding germs as you kick off your summer activities:

• In the backyard: cook food thoroughly, wash fruits and veggies, wear gloves while gardening
• In the water: avoid drinking pool water, wear waterproof bandaids if you have an open wound
• On the trail: lots of bug spray, get tick bites checked out quickly, properly treat water before drinking

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Edited and produced by

Harris Sockel

Questions, feedback, or story suggestions? Email us: tips@medium.com