How to Make Better Decisions

A Few Things You Should Consider

Each day we are faced with situations in life that require us to make choices. Making good decisions is a method that must be learned. It is not something with which we are innately born, but merely a step-by-step process that is usually ascertained from life experience.

Easy decisions consist of things like what clothing you should wear or things like what to eat.

Examples of difficult decisions consist of things like what career path would be best, and whether or not to marry and start a family. These types of decisions are difficult because they are life-changing decisions that shape the outcome of our lives.

Identify Your Goal

Figuring out what’s most important to you will help you make good decisions. When you know the reason why you have made a particular decision; it will better serve you in staying with it, and defending it for the long term.
It focuses on your acquisition of knowledge and helps you to organize your time and your resources so that you can make the most of your life.

By setting sharp, clearly defined goals, you can measure and take pride in the achievement of those goals, and you’ll see forward progress in what might previously have seemed a long pointless grind. You will also raise your self-confidence , as you recognize your own ability and competence in achieving the goals that you’ve set.

Reduce decision fatigue

Do not waste your energy on small unimportant decisions. Pareto’s Law states that 80% of our outputs come from 20% of our inputs. If we focus our attention on activities that rank in the top 20% in terms of importance, we’ll get an 80% return on our efforts. If our to-do lists have ten items on them, the two most important ones will give an 80% return on our time.

People who try to make the perfect decision every time tend to suffer more anxiety about their decisions, feel less satisfied with them afterward, and unsurprisingly, are less productive than people who just go with ‘good enough.’

So you didn’t get the best possible hotel at the best possible price? Move on. So the shade of yellow you chose to paint the room was a little dark? Again, move on! Much more important issues are waiting for your attention.

Research shows that trying to nail every decision reduces our capacity to perform at our peak and make great decisions about the things that really matter.

• Create rules and habits — Habits are our brain’s way of increasing its efficiency. Our brain turns daily actions and behaviors into habits, so we would do them automatically and without too much thought — thus freeing up our brainpower for other more important challenges. This strategy of our brain has wonderful benefits for us. It allows us to function better in life. Just imagine if you have to consider and ponder every single task or reaction. We’d be doing nothing else but think!
• Divide large tasks into smaller ones — break the task down into small manageable pieces. Whereby a big project may seem overwhelming and will probably cause you to procrastinate, splitting it into smaller steps can calm you down, make it seem less intimidating and far more manageable, and will motivate you to get started.
• Stop doubting the potential outcomes of your decisions — That’s the most tiring part of decision-making. Once you adopt that mindset, you no longer worry about all the potential negative outcomes, which will give you peace of mind.

Focus on knowledge over information

Information is generally about data, facts, or statements. Knowledge is usually about applying certain information to a specific cause. Most people acquire a lot of information but not a lot of knowledge. That’s because it’s easy to obtain information. But acquiring knowledge takes time.

When you acquire knowledge, you do it with intention and a specific focus. For example, reading a book is a serious time investment that requires actual determination.

When you grab your phone to consume random information. You’re thinking, “It’s just a social media post, a short video” and so forth. But the problem is that you go down a rabbit hole. And you end up consuming a lot of information. But most of it serves no purpose.

Use other people experience

Facing more complex problems, you can use knowledge from different professionals.

“An expert is someone who has succeeded in making decisions and judgments simpler through knowing what to pay attention to and what to ignore.”

Try to seek the opinions of experts and professionals, because it will help you to come up with a variety of solutions when weighing all your options for a final decision. You want to gather as many resources as possible to make the best decision.

When you want to build a house, you hire an Architect, Electrical Engineers, and Contractors. The same case can be when you’re facing smaller problems like prepare taxes or facing difficult clients.

Bear in mind that when you have a tough decision to make, you don’t just want people to tell you what you want to hear. A great practice is to create space to think and build in time to let your thoughts marinate.

Timing is everything

It’s all about being in the right place at the right time.

Timing of the decision is important since it allows you to visualize various elements needed for the decision and helps the decision making more coordinated with critical key points considered while making the decision. Being indecisive often means that all or most of the best options have been eliminated and you’re left with the least beneficial option.

Sometimes making a quick decision gives you more time to make necessary changes when problems arise, and other times it is best to delay a decision.

Don't allow yourself to wait for the perfect timing and make it an excuse for not taking action at all.

There is absolutely never the perfect timing for anything, but there is a big difference between making a smart move taking a smart risk, and not taking action at all. The worst thing is to let something like that linger in your mind every day. It’s just like dirty dishes floating in your kitchen sink. It bothers you.

Trust your intuition — If you feel deep down that the time is not right yet and you’re only trying to fake it until you make it without adequate resources, strategy, and commitment, you are only going to hurt yourself.

With the right timing, you can achieve your goals with substantially less effort and much lower risk, so, it’s definitely worth taking timing into consideration and calculating it into your strategy.

Take care of yourself

We often make bad decisions when we’re tired. The easiest thing you can do right now to improve your decision-making is to NOT decide on anything when you’re tired.

Some people think it’s lazy or that you’re procrastinating when you’re putting off a decision when you’re tired. But that’s not true. When you can make a better decision at a later moment, it’s smart to delay your decision.

Taking care of yourself is one of the few things you are in control of. No one else is going to do it for you. Getting good sleep has been linked to increased focus, improved cognitive function, greater capacity for learning, and improved empathy.

A healthy diet has been linked to better moods, higher energy levels, and lower levels of depression.

Aerobic exercise increases blood flow, boosting both learning and creativity.

When life goes wrong, you need to know how to set things right, and the energy to execute. If the idea still feels selfish to you, think of the benefits for everyone around you.

If you’re taken care of, you can take better care of the people around you.

You cannot always guarantee the outcome of the decision you made, be confident and let the decision reflect your own personal sense of what is right.

The beauty of the present world is that, if you create enough space in your life to make powerful decisions, you can do things previous generations could never imagine.