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Simon's Decision Making Blog
Decide To Have It All: Advice For Finding Your Dream Job and Apartment!
For those of you who decided to make New Year’s resolutions to land both your dream job and your dream apartment in 2010, here is a Yahoo! HotJobs article that kills two birds with one stone: “Finding the Dream Job and a Great Apartment.” You should check it out to get some solid advice on how to snag that awesome job and cool digs. For more advice on your job search, check out “The Savvy Networker” to learn about the “top 10 most useless job-search rules” you should decide to break ASAP.
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Want to Decide on a Job? Consider the “World’s Coolest Jobs”
If I ever decide to give up my career in decision making (which I can’t imagine choosing to do), perhaps I could have a future as a water-slide tester or a fried food inventor. To find out more about these 11 dream jobs, you should check out this list of the World’s Coolest Jobs, which I found on msnbc’s TODAY Technology & Money page. Do you think these jobs are too good to be true?
Decide to Take Your Career “Off Autopilot”
I just read a terrific U.S. News & World Report career article by career coach and author Curt Rosengren: 4 Steps to Taking Your Career Off Autopilot. What I like about this article is that rather than choose to give vague answers, the author has decided to pose important questions that we should all consider, no matter where we are in our careers or what field we work in. It’s always a good idea to take some time to check in with yourself and decide how satisfied you are with your career. If you are interested in making changes, you should check out U.S. News’s list of the 50 best careers for 2010.
Simonites Decide: Top Alternatives For Choosing a Sport
Should I be worried that my Simonites are not good team players? When it comes to deciding on a sport to play, more Simonites decide that they should take up swimming, tennis, or cycling than any other alternative. Sure, you can choose to play doubles in tennis, but can that really be called a “team” sport? I wonder if my community is full of independent-minded athletes, or if maybe after a certain age people decide that these individual sports make more sense for their lifestyles. What do you think?
New York Times Q&A With “Decision-Making Master” (No, Not Me)
Last week, the New York Times’ “Freakonomics” blog featured an interesting decision-making Q&A with Ralph Keeney, a decision analyst at Duke University’s business school. Readers sent in questions to Keeney (about decision making processes, how people decide, and so on), whose responses discuss “how to avoid making the wrong decisions, how to figure out what you really want, and why neither psychologists nor economists have definitively figured out how to make good decisions”–just my cup of tea! You should all check it out for some interesting advice and insight, as well as some speculation as to why Tiger Woods and David Letterman decided to commit those pesky little “indiscretions.”
Top Decisions of the Week: What Should I Do About My Love Life?
This morning I pulled up a report of the most popular decisions made by Simonites in the past week–and they are ALL choices about love and relationships! At first I was surprised to see that people were not focusing on deciding what to do about their careers and jobs, as has been the case for the past few months. Instead, my community seemed to have been drinking Love Potion #9! All anyone seemed to be thinking about was how to decide about their love lives.
These are the top 6 decisions: 1) Should I tell him/her how I feel? 2) Should I get back together with my ex? 3) Should I dump him/her? 4) Should I have an affair? 5) Should I get married? 6) Should I ask him/her out?
My first thought was, “Huh?” But then I thought of all the lovey-dovey movies on TV this time of year (Love Actually anyone?), the mistletoe, the New Year’s Eve kiss, and the way that holidays can get us thinking about what really matters to us–the people we love. At the same time, the holiday season can make people without love in their lives feel especially lonely, which may explain why users have these decisions on the brain. It makes total sense that with eleven–count them–days until Christmas, these are the choices that matter most to my community. That’s one of the best parts of my job, gaining a better understanding of people’s hearts and minds through the decisions they make.
House Hunters: Red Flags To Look For Before You Decide to Bid
While many of you may be focusing on your holiday shopping, some may be deciding to make a pricier purchase this December–a new home. I just came across this great article on Yahoo’s Real Estate page that I think all Simonite house hunters should read: 7 Red Flags for Home Buyers. You all know there’s nothing I like more than a checklist. For ultimate peace of mind (and headache prevention), try going down this list with a Sharpie marker to cross out red flags from ceiling stains to poor water pressure until you feel confident in your decision.
Tips to Help You Decide How to Shop This Holiday Season
Some of you may be laughing at the title of this post, feeling so proud of yourselves for having finished your shopping way back in October. Well, lucky you! I am still in the process of making my list and checking it twice. I would bet that I am not alone, either. To prove it, I recently posted a poll on my Simonites Say page about holiday gift shopping styles–cast your vote today!
So, for those of you who, like me, have no beautifully wrapped gifts tucked under the tree or Menorah, or wherever you keep your gifts, I recommend you read this Wall Street Journal article, “How to Manage Holiday Shopping.” And if you’re like me and prefer to do all your shopping online, their list of Online Tools to Make Holiday Shopping Easy may just keep you sane this holiday season!
Thanksgiving Decision Making
With Turkey Day just around the corner, I wanted to share a couple resources that can help you with your most pressing Thanksgiving decisions: what to pile on your plate!
- For those of you interested in watching your figure on Thursday, check out this Q&A about healthy habits for the holidays from the Washington Post.
- If you plan on going meat-free, you may be interested in this CNN article on creative cooking with vegetables.
- If you’re on a budget, check out Epicurious.com’s “Thanksgiving on a Budget” Menu and Tips.
- If you’re on a really tight budget, this Colorado TV station shows you how to keep your holiday meal under $30.
Facebook App is Up and Running, Plus Other Updates!
Hi Simonites! I know I’ve mentioned it on Facebook and Twitter, but I wanted to let all of you know that the Let Simon Decide Facebook App is up and running. What does this mean for you? Quicker and easier access to my decision tools through Facebook, just like you get by clicking the new Facebook Connect button on the homepage. No more lengthy registration or log-in! The app also has a feature that allows you to invite your friends to try the app, too. Hint, hint 
As far as other updates go, some of you may have noticed that there is a new factor category within Simon’s Decisions: Simonites’ Top Factors, which is now the first category listed. This allows you to see the factors that have been most important to other users who have already made this decision. Also in terms of the Simon’s Decisions page, I recently moved some of my Lifestyle decisions underneath a new label: Relationship Decisions. This is where you can find decisions about dating, marriage, breakups, hook-ups, and so on.
I think that covers all the recent changes. Keep your feedback coming–my ears and my mind are wide open!