By Jeff Hough
Each week as I sit down to write this article I sift through a file of article ideas. Choosing the topic for the week can be a challenge. Sometimes the choice is easy because I have an idea that has to get out of my head. Yet, other weeks are difficult because I haven’t found anything interesting. After thinking about my decision process, I began reflecting on the decisions I make each day.
Multiple websites tell me the average person makes about 35,000 decisions each day. The size of each decision varies but each carries consequences, regardless of its significance. An interesting thing about choices is their compounding nature. Not brushing your teeth may seem inconsequential. Yet, choosing to consistently not brush your teeth has drastic consequences.
Making all these decisions leads to decision fatigue syndrome. Decision fatigue occurs when an individual has been through an intense decision-making period. When forced to think about choices for an extended amount of time, the brain becomes fatigued. This fatigue leads to irrational choices and behavior.
Think about the grocery store and the candy next to the checkout counter. After spending 30 minutes making multiple decisions, your brain maxes out it’s decision-making power. Then, when faced with the temptation at the checkout counter, you make the impulse decision to buy the candy because you are out of willpower to say no.
Often, the amount of information floating around us causes analysis paralysis. This paralysis prevents us from making decisions. I recently spent an entire morning trying to decide between two products. Sifting through hundreds of reviews and comparisons caused my brain to seize. I had too much information, I couldn’t decide. I had to walk away and come back later.
Another factor contributing to bad decision making is cognitive tunneling. Cognitive tunneling occurs when our minds become fixated on a thought or a task. This causes you to become blind to other stimulus or input. This often occurs when you are under stress and forced to make rapid decisions.
Each of these issues leads to impaired decision making. In our personal and professional lives, this can have disastrous consequences. However, like any other skill, decision-making can be improved. Using the following suggestions on a regular basis will improve your skills.
A simple thing to improve your decision-making is establishing regular routines. Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg are famous for wearing the same outfit every day. By eliminating small, inconsequential decisions you save energy and willpower for more important things.
With all the information surrounding us, our mind often grabs the first piece of information that makes sense and holds onto it. This is the mind’s way of conserving energy, but it leads to cognitive tunneling. Be wary of information overload when making decisions, especially under time constraints.
Finally, a powerful tool to improve your decisions is using mental models. A mental model is a way thinking about a situation, event or process. A simple way of thinking about it is visualization. In “The Art of War” Sun Tzu said: “The general who wins a battle makes many calculations in his temple before the battle is fought.”
For example, before meeting with your boss to talk about a raise, take time to visualize the meeting. In your thinking, consider the possible objections and your responses. Then when the meeting comes and the pressure is on you will have the answers at your fingertips.
Making good decisions isn’t always about being the smartest person in the room. Billionaire partner of Warren Buffett, Charlie Munger, makes a great point with this statement:“It is remarkable how much long-term advantage people like us have gotten by trying to be consistently not stupid, instead of trying to be very intelligent.”
Jeff Hough is a business author, blogger and speaker in Pocatello.
