Question
How do I practice two-way door decisions?
Quick Answer
List your five most recent decisions that took more than a day to make. For each one, answer: if this decision turns out badly, can I reverse it within a week at low cost? Mark each as a one-way door or a two-way door. Count how many two-way doors consumed disproportionate deliberation time. For.
The most direct way to practice two-way door decisions is through a focused exercise: List your five most recent decisions that took more than a day to make. For each one, answer: if this decision turns out badly, can I reverse it within a week at low cost? Mark each as a one-way door or a two-way door. Count how many two-way doors consumed disproportionate deliberation time. For each of those, write what you would do differently — the specific point where you would have stopped analyzing and walked through.
Common pitfall: Intellectually agreeing that most decisions are reversible while continuing to deliberate on every one of them. The framework becomes another thing you know about instead of something that changes your behavior. You'll catch yourself when you notice the third meeting about a decision that could be undone with a Slack message.
This practice connects to Phase 23 (Decision Frameworks) — building it as a repeatable habit compounds over time.
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