For me, it is test running the potential scenarios and outcomes of different events in my head, with slight tweaking of the endogenous variables, sometimes multiple simultaneously, to determine what, if any, impact on exogenous variables, then choosing the action that will most likely result in the outcome desired.

However, I must actually care enough about a situation to bother doing the above. Otherwise, I kick back, watch the events unfold, learn something from watching, or at least let it all entertain me.