From job offers to screen time, this 3-question rule works everywhere

A founder weighing a product pivot, a parent deciding whether to cave on screen time, someone comparing a higher-paying job with a worse commute: these are very different decisions, but according to Suzy Welch, they can all be untangled with the same three questions.

Welch, a three-time New York Times bestselling author and NYU Stern professor, developed the 10-10-10 rule as a way to prevent impulsive decisions. Before committing to a choice, you ask what the consequences will look like in 10 minutes, in 10 months and in 10 years.

Each question pulls a different emotional register. The ten-minute answer is about immediate relief or discomfort, the ten-month answer shows the likely consequences, and the ten-year answer reveals whether the decision really matters in the long run. Welch says the formula applies to almost every field and nearly every kind of decision people face.

The rule isn’t built for genuine emergencies, which don’t wait ten minutes, let alone ten years. But for the many decisions that aren’t time-bound, it offers a faster route to clarity than a traditional pros-and-cons list. As the idea goes, most people do not lack good judgement, they simply lack the ten seconds it takes to reach it.

Image: Wikimedia Commons/by S Sepp