What's for Dinner?

Our aim at Athena is to give you your time back so you can spend it in the ways that matter most.

In each issue of our newsletter you’ll get unique delegation tips.

What's for Dinner?

Deciding what’s for dinner shouldn’t be the hardest part of your day, but it often is. The mental chatter surfaces quickly:

• What do we already have in the fridge?

• Will it have enough protein and fiber?

• Will the kids actually eat it?

This is decision fatigue. Every small, repetitive choice erodes your bandwidth.

Instead of deciding every night, you could set a pre-set meal structure: tacos on Monday, sushi on Tuesday, pasta on Wednesday, and so on.

Dinner feels tiresome not because it’s difficult, but because it lacks structure. Every night feels like a fresh decision balancing what’s in the fridge, nutrition, variety, and preferences.

But when the key criteria are set upfront, the decision is already made:

• No wondering what’s available (groceries have already been purchased for the week)

• No debates about balance (the plan already incorporates your nutrition priorities)

Dinner shifts from a reactive, last-minute decision to an automatic process.

It’s the same with delegation. If your assistant keeps asking how to handle something, it’s usually because they’re missing clear criteria and upfront context. But when expectations, preferences, and rules are set ahead of time, work flows without constant input.

Systems remove friction. Clear criteria eliminate decisions.

Read more on why context is a key component to leverage.

How Schwarzman Broke a 268-Year-Old Yale Tradition

Stephen Schwarzman ignored conventional advice—and changed a 268-year-old rule at Yale.

In the late 1960s, Yale strictly prohibited women from staying overnight in men's dorm rooms.

Schwarzman—the future founder of Blackstone—knew the conventional approach would fail:

An administrator in a bow tie explaining why the rules couldn't change.

So he bypassed the front door.

Instead of arguing with administrators, Schwarzman surveyed the entire student body. Eleven students stationed outside dining halls with questionnaires addressing every administration objection.

"Do you think changing parietal rules will stop you from studying? Would having more women around be a distraction?"

Response rate: nearly 100%.

Armed with data, Schwarzman took the results to his friend at the Yale Daily News: "Reed, I've got this survey about getting rid of parietal rules. It's dynamite."

Three days later, Yale's 268-year-old parietal rules were history. The university didn't want to fight once public opinion was quantified and publicized.

Great breakthroughs rarely come from fighting systems head-on.

They come from recognizing where change actually happens, then redirecting your energy there.

Schwarzman didn’t personally handle each step or micromanage every detail. Instead, he created momentum by:

1. Activating people closest to and most passionate about the issue

2. Gathering undeniable evidence rather than relying on opinions

3. Letting others carry the message forward

Great leadership, even without direct authority, doesn’t look like handling everything yourself. It's about deploying the right people in the right places to create leverage and momentum.

Adapted from Schwarzman’s biography, What It Takes