actions versus decisions

Actions are when you do anything.

Picking up the phone, declining a call, joining a meeting, declining a meeting, focusing on a project, and scrolling through your social media feed are all examples of actions.

Decisions are when you make a judgment about what will or will not happen. They’re outcome-focused.

You can decide that a project will get done today. You can decide that you’ll ignore one problem and instead focus on another for the time being.

You can take a lot of action without making a single decision, but there will be very little reassurance about where that action will get you.

Or you can make one important decision about what’s going to happen followed by a lot of concerted action, which is probably the more effective route to take.