The decisions you make should help you or your company achieve goals. Identifying your individual and business goals can direct you toward the best choice. When you know what results you want, making decisions can be more straightforward.

For example, imagine you are considering whether to gain further qualifications. Identifying your professional goals can help you make the best decision for your future.

Understanding why you are making decisions, what your options are and the impact of selecting each option helps you make more informed and better choices.

The most successful decision-makers know when they have collected enough information to make the best decisions. Once they have, they act decisively and move on, confident their choice is the best they could have made.

The more alternatives you consider, the more likely you are to make successful decisions. Carefully considering a wide range of potential choices is best.

Communicating with others during your decision-making process can offer fresh perspectives that may present alternatives you hadn't considered.

Imagining what could happen before you act can help guide you toward the best decision.

Consider how your decisions would improve your life and the lives of others close to you. This approach can be more effective than making a list of pros and cons, as it recognizes not every benefit or drawback is weighted equally.

Resisting the urge to draw conclusions and staying open-minded until reaching a final decision can help you to overcome confirmation bias and make better decisions.

It is a natural tendency to draw conclusions first, then seek out evidence that supports it. However, this can cause you to overlook important information.

Having a variety of choices early in the decision-making process is important, but in time a wide range of choices can be overwhelming and confusing.

Eliminating options throughout the decision-making process reduces these feelings. Discount choices when you learn they are not the right selections rather than researching them further. As you narrow your options, you can focus better on each one available and ultimately make the best decision.

• The natural tendency to weigh and rank options undermines the concept that sometimes options have relatively equal value. You could research your options for days or weeks and still be unclear about which is a better proposition.
• Understanding this and committing to one option or another is crucial for better decision-making.
• Once you are confident your options are relatively equal, you might use a random decision maker online or a choosing wheel. Only use easy decision-maker tools when you feel all your options are equal since they cannot substitute your own knowledge.

Rushed decisions are rarely the best decisions. When someone makes decisions too quickly, they are often guided by biases and natural inclinations rather than objective information. Take advantage of the time you have available to make your decisions.

If someone wants a quick answer, ask whether you can have more time. While this is not always possible, extra time for gathering information and reflecting usually leads to better decisions. If you have limited time, try developing a counterargument for the decision you are considering. Debating with yourself, even for a short time, can help you make better decisions at the moment.

Every decision you make has consequences for you, and potentially for other people as well. Try to adjust your thinking to make decisions without worrying about making mistakes.

Though you need to consider potential outcomes, the safest option is not always the best one. If you choose carefully without fear holding you back, you can embrace the consequences to make the best decisions possible.

Every time you make decisions, you can get better at it.

• Reflect on the choices you make and their outcomes. Note whether the results were entirely favorable or could have gone better.
• Identify areas for improvement, and consider how you could better the outcome next time.
• Every decision you make provides a learning opportunity that should make you a better decision-maker.