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6 Reasons We Make Bad Decisions, and What to Do About Them
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2,000 decisions per waking hour
Research has shown that the typical person makes about 2,000 decisions every waking hour. Most are minor ones and we make them automatically. But many have serious consequences.
That's why making good decisions is arguably the most important habit we can develop.
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Decision fatigue
Our ability to perform mental tasks and make decisions wears thin when it’s repeatedly used.
Identify the most important decisions you need to make, and, as often as possible, prioritize your time so that you make them when your energy levels are highest.
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A steady state of distraction
Our brains process five times as much information today as in 1986. Thus, many of us live in a continuous state of distraction and struggle to focus.
To counter this, find time each day to unplug and step back from email, social media and news.
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Lack of input
Introverts are usually reluctant to speak up in a meeting until they know precisely what they want to say. But they may have some of the best ideas to contribute.
So when scheduling a meeting, send out a meeting agenda 24 hours in advance to give everyone time to think about their contributions.
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Multi-tasking
Performance, including decision-making effectiveness, suffers by up to 40% when we focus on two cognitive tasks at the same time.
When you need to make important decisions, commit to several blocks of time during the day to focus deeply on the task at hand.
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Emotions
Our emotions, especially during moments of peak anger and happiness, can hinder our ability to make good decisions.
Pay attention to your emotional state and focus on the character strength of self-control. Resist the temptation to respond to people or make decisions while you’re emotionally keyed up.
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Analysis Paralysis
The more information we have to consider, the longer we typically take to make a decision.
While the decision-making process should be thorough, the best way to make good decisions is usually not to take more time or to look at more information. Instead, review the pertinent information you need, set a deadline to make a decision, and then stick to it.
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Turn Small Decisions Into Routines
Decision-making works like a muscle: as you use it over the course of the day, it gets too exhausted to function effectively.
One way to avoid this is to eliminate smaller decisions by t...
Make Big Decisions In The Morning
Save small decisions for after work (when decision fatigue kicks in) and to tackle complex decisions in the morning, when your mind is fresh.
A similar strategy is to do some of the smaller things the night before to get a head start on the next day.
Pay Attention To Your Emotions
...and you'll able to look at decisions as objectively and rationally as possible.
Strong decision-makers know that a bad mood can make them lash out or stray from their moral compass just as easily as a good mood can make them overconfident and impulsive.
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"The best measure of quality thinking is your ability to accurately predict the consequences of your ideas a..."
Milton Friedman
Think in Years, Not Days
Before jumping to a conclusion, think about the long-term consequences of your decision.
We may respect those able to fling themselves into a hard problem and make a quick choice with seemingly little thought, but making a meaningful decision needs to be done with care for the long-term effects.
Understand Decision Fatigue
It’s important to be aware of what state of mind you’re in before tackling a hard choice.
Decision fatigue happens when the mental energy required to weigh the tradeoffs of our decision becomes too much for us to handle.
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Decision-making obstacles
- The realness of the present threat: the new virus is really contagious and people are dying from ...
The pandemic and our biases
The threat, uncertainty, and anxiety related to the pandemic lead us to make short-sighted decisions:
- we crave more information so we are spending a lot of time looking for news updates relating to the virus and its spread. But too much negative news causes stress and distraction.
- the lack of agency causes people to seek out actions that will make them feel more in control. Early on, this took the form of buying hand sanitizer and rubbing alcohol.
Financial decisions
People want to take action quickly, even when inaction might be more prudent.
Faced with anxiety, some are making quick decisions about finances as well and started fear selling their stocks. But this is taking a paper loss in the present that is likely to come back in the future (given the way stock markets have acted in the past).