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Making decisions is a crucial part of life, but many people struggle to make decisions, in one way or another. Some people, for example, are naturally indecisive, and therefore struggle to make decisions in a timely manner, even when it comes to trivial things, such as choosing what to eat for dinner. Other people, on the other hand, rush into decisions too fast, and therefore make decisions that are bad for them, especially when it comes to things such as their finances or relationships. And finally, some people are fine when it comes to making decisions in general, but get stuck when it comes to certain life-changing decisions, such as what career path to follow. Because making decisions is such an important part of life, and because we often struggle to do it properly, learning how to make decisions is highly beneficial. As such, in the following article you will learn about the process that you should use to decisions, and see guidelines, tips, and techniques that will help you make better decisions faster and more easily. This will help you both in general, as well as if you’re struggling with a specific hard decision right now. Why it’s hard to make (good) decisionsThere are many reasons why it’s hard to make decisions, and especially good, fast ones. Most notably:
Overall, there are many reasons why it’s hard to make (good) decisions, including the complexity of the decision-making process, the cognitive effort associated with decision-making, and related issues such uncertainty, the fear of missing out, and cognitive biases. These concepts, together with related ones, are explained in more detail in the dedicated article on the topic. How to make decisionsThe decision-making processTo make decisions in an optimal manner, you should generally include all the following steps as part of your decision-making process:
If necessary, it can be beneficial to move back and forth between these steps and make modifications as you go along. For example, if you discover that none of the available options will help you achieve your main goal, you can go back and reassess your goals, and then gather more information accordingly. In addition, you can add any of the following optional steps to your decision-making process, in order to improve your ability to make decisions:
Once you finish making a decision, you can move on to take action, and act on the decision that you’ve made. Note that, in addition to following this process, there are other things that you can do to improve your decision-making. As such, in the following sub-sections you will see additional tips and techniques that will help you improve your decision-making. Each sub-section focuses on a different type of decisions, including good decisions, fast decisions, and hard decisions, and there are generally tradeoffs between the different approaches that are recommended below. For example, good decisions might take longer to make, while fast decisions might not be as good. It’s up to you to decide what to optimize for, and you will likely prioritize different things in different situations. For example, when it comes to making relatively trivial decisions, such as what to order at a restaurant, you will generally want to prioritize speed, but when it comes to important life-changing decisions, such as which career path to follow, you will generally want to prioritize making the best decision that you can. How to make good decisionsTo make good decisions, you should generally go through every step of the decision-making process before you reach a decision, and make sure to conduct each step properly. To help ensure that you do this, you can go through each step in a way the forces you to be explicit with your reasoning, for example by outlining it aloud or in writing. When doing this, you should watch for issues that could interfere with your decision-making, such as cognitive biases, and deal with them, primarily through the use of appropriate debiasing techniques. For example, if you’re in a situation where the egocentric bias is making it hard for you to see things from a different perspective, you can use self-distancing, and ask yourself what advice you would give to a friend if they were in your situation. This particular technique can be beneficial in a wide range of situations, and as one book on the topic states:
In addition, once you have picked your preferred option as part of the decision but before you take action, you can play the devil’s advocate, and argue either against that option or in favor of the options that you’ve decided to forego. This can help you identify potential flaws in your decision-making, and will help you make sure that the option you’ve picked is truly the best one for you. Finally, note that your intuition can sometimes help you make relatively good decisions, especially in situations where you can’t conduct a comprehensive decision-making process, for whatever reason. However, the risk of relying on your intuition is that it is relatively opaque, meaning that you won’t necessarily understand why it caused you to make a certain decision, and so you might not be able to confirm that you made the best choice. As such, while intuition can be a powerful tool, you should be wary when using it, and only do so when you believe that it’s the best option in your particular situation. How to make fast decisionsSometimes, your goal shouldn’t be to make the best possible decision, but rather to a relatively good decision quickly. This is particularly important in certain cases, such as if you habitually delay making trivial decisions, or if you delay making decisions for so long that it leads to significant negative consequences for you. Fortunately, there are many techniques that you can use to help yourself make decisions faster:
There’s no need for you to use all of these techniques. Rather, you should find the ones that you believe will help you the most, and focus on implementing those when trying to make decisions faster. As you make progress, you can try to use new techniques from the list, and figure out which ones work for you and which ones don’t. How to make hard decisionsWhen it comes to making a hard decision, you should try to deal with it as you would other decisions, by conducting a proper decision-making process. However, if you find yourself in a situation where you still can’t choose, there are various techniques you can use:
Common questions about making decisionsShould I let my emotions dictate my decisions?You should take your emotions into account as part of your decision-making process, but you shouldn’t let your emotions cloud your judgment in a way that causes you to make bad decisions. For example, when it comes to deciding whether to end a romantic relationship, you should take into account important emotional considerations, such as how you feel about your partner. However, you should not let your feelings for your partner lead you to conduct a flawed decision-making process, for instance by causing you to ignore serious negative things that this person did to you. How can I be sure I’m making the right decision?You can be relatively certain that you’re making the right decision by taking care to conduct a proper decision-making process, which includes all the relevant steps such as gathering information and evaluating options, while also taking care to avoid common issues, such as cognitive biases, that could interfere with your decision-making. In addition, you can increase your certainty in your decision by reviewing your decision-making process after you complete it, and by asking for feedback on it and on your decision from relevant individuals. However, that said, there will be many situations where you can’t be absolutely certain that you’re making the right decision. To avoid regret and indecision, it’s important to accept this, and to tell yourself that you’re making the best decision that you can, based on what you know. What if I make the wrong decision?No matter how careful you are in your decision-making, there is almost always the possibility that the choice that you make will be “wrong” in some way, meaning that it will lead you to a worse outcome compared to some alternative that you had available. Because this is generally impossible to avoid, all you can do is accept the possibility that it will happen, and try to make the best possible decision that you can, by following a proper decision-making process. As one book on the topic states:
That said, in many cases, you’ll discover that even if you do make the wrong choice, the outcome isn’t as bad as you thought, for example because the decision is partly reversible. If you do find yourself having made the wrong decision, your main goal should be to avoid obsessing and punishing yourself over it. Instead, you should figure out what you can learn from your experience so you can make better decisions in the future, and then start looking at what you can do to move forward past this decision. How can I avoid regretting my decisions?There are two main ways to minimize regret toward the decisions that you make. The first is to make decisions in a way that minimizes the likelihood of future regret, and the second is to change the way you view your decisions after you’ve made them. When it comes to making decisions in a way that minimizes regret, you should do what you can to make reasonably good decisions, which means, for example, that you should generally follow all the necessary steps of a proper decision-making process. This reduces the likelihood that you’ll make bad decisions that you’ll later regret, and will also help you know later that you’ve made a good decision given the circumstances and what you knew at the time. In addition, where appropriate, the book “The Paradox of Choice” suggests that you can adopt the standards of a satisficer, by trying to make decisions that are good enough given the circumstances, rather than those of a maximizer, who tries to always make the best possible decision. The book also suggests that to minimize future regret, you should reduce the number of options that you consider before making a decision. This aligns with research on the topic, which shows that regret generally arises from comparisons between the option that you select and the alternatives that you chose to forgo. Finally, when it comes to making decisions in a way that minimizes regret in the long-term, note that people often regret indecision and inaction more than they do bad choices. As noted in The Paradox of Choice:
This is also reflected in other sources, as such as the following:
However, keep in mind that regret is influenced by various other situational and personal factors. For example, inaction tends to lead to more regret when a decision is made in response to negative prior outcomes (a phenomenon referred to as the inaction effect), while taking action tends to lead to more regret when making decisions in response to prior outcomes that were positive, or when making decisions in isolation (a phenomenon referred to as the action effect). This is important to take into account when trying to make decisions in a way that minimizes regret, because it means that decisions that you make should be tailored to you and to your specific circumstances, rather than based entirely on general guidelines. When it comes to minimizing regret after you’ve made a decision, instead of focusing on your disappointments and on the negative aspects of your decision, you should focus on its positive aspects, as well as on what you learned from it and on how you can implement what you’ve learned from it when it comes to future decisions. If possible, you can also consider the fact that the decision that you’ve made was the best one possible given the circumstances. Furthermore, you should remind yourself that even if you regret your decision, you might have also ended up regretting your decision even if you chose differently. For example, although taking action can lead to more regret in the short-term than inaction, this regret tends to decrease over time, while regret over inaction tends to increase, which means that inaction tends to lead to more long-term regret. Accordingly, if you take action and end up feeling regret because it didn’t end up with your desired outcome, you should remind yourself that you would likely have ended up with more regrets in the long-term if you didn’t take action at all. Finally, to reduce your regret, you should also keep in mind how complex life is, and realize that it’s rare for any single decision to be entirely irreversible or to change the course of your life as much as you might initially think. As stated in The Paradox of Choice:
How do I stick to a decision once I make it?There are several things that you can do to make sure that you stick with your decisions, and not constantly change your mind:
However, keep in mind that, while these techniques can be beneficial, you should use them carefully, and with proper consideration; don’t stick to an initial course of action simply because it was your first choice, if it becomes clear that a better alternative is available, unless there’s a compelling reason to do so. How can I make sure that I act on my decisions?The key to making sure that you follow through on your decisions is to formulate your decisions in a concrete and actionable way, since doing so increases the likelihood that you’ll follow through on them in a timely manner. For example, instead of just deciding that you’re going to “start exercising”, decide that you’re going to start exercising as of the beginning of next week, by going to the gym on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, at 6 PM, and spend at least an hour working out. Other techniques can also help you make sure that you act on your decisions. Most notably, you should identify likely obstacles that will prevent you from taking action, and then formulate potential solutions to those obstacles. For example, if you decide to stop talking to someone after breaking up with them, and you know that you might end up sending them a message in a moment of weakness, you can delete their number from your phone in advance, to help your future-self follow through on your initial decision. Summary and conclusions
To learn more about why it’s so hard to make decisions in the first place (especially good, fast ones), read the associated article on the topic. |