deepstash
Beta
3 Research-Backed Techniques for Making Better Decisions
If you only allow yourself your vice while you’re simultaneously being virtuous, you’ll spend more time doing things that are good for you and less time doing the “bad” things.
The researchers call this “pre-bundling” and say it allows people to couple instantly gratifying activities (such as watching trashy TV) with a behavior that’s beneficial in the long term but requires willpower (like working out).
320 SAVES
SIMILAR ARTICLES & IDEAS:
6
Key Ideas
Distancing yourself from a problem can help you face it in a more objective way.
Instead of remaining in your own frame of mind, consider yourself as an outside observer, such as a friend giving advice or a fly on the wall. Removing yourself in this way helps you filter out some of your cognitive biases and lean you toward a more rational decision.
Accuracy and reliability in decision making tends to increase if you first give yourself some time to decompress and collect yourself.
This may also help you remove yourself from the problem, knocking out two of these strategies at a time.
7
Key Ideas
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.
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.
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.
4
Key Ideas
Our emotions are obsessed with the present moment because it’s difficult to look past our immediate fears and anxieties. And this prevents good decision-making.
The sweet spot in decision-making is to find the short-term failures that enable huge long-term successes to happen in the first place.
Most of us are afraid of messing thing up. But we rarely ask, “Would I regret that failure?” If the answer is “no,” then that is absolutely a risk you should pursue.
Sometimes, the right decision becomes crystal clear when put into these terms.