Outsmart Your Worst Instincts

The 10-10-10 rule turns impulsive moments into considered choices by stretching them across time

- KONKONA ROY

Acurt email fired off in frustration. A job accepted in panic. A relationship decision made in the heat of emotion. In moments like these, urgency hijacks judgment-and clarity becomes collateral damage.

Enter the 10-10-10 rule, a deceptively simple decisionmaking framework finding renewed relevance in an age of endless choice and cognitive overload.

The technique asks just three questions: How will this decision feel in 10 days? In 10 months? In 10 years? Popularised by business strategist Suzy Welch in her 2009 book 10-10-10: A Life-Transforming Idea, the rule works by forcing the mind to stretch a decision across time allowing emotion and logic to coexist rather than compete.

For Divakar, a developer at a Delhi-based tech firm, the rule became a quiet safeguard against professional self-sabotage. "There was a time I would type out angry work emails the moment something went awry," he says. "Using the 10-10-10 check stopped me cold." In the moment, venting felt justified.

But in 10 days, he knew he'd be repairing trust. In 10 months, that email could shape how colleagues perceived him.