TURN YOUR THINKING AROUND: 8 Ways to Make Better Decisions

Adapted from: Business Insider

(http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-become-more-powerful-2011-12)

1.   Make important decisions in the morning, before you experience "ego depletion"

Freud speculated that the self, or ego, depended on mental activities involving the transfer of energy.... His experiments demonstrated that there is a finite store of mental energy for exerting self-control. As the day wears on, your energy reserves are further depleted. Our finite supply of "decision-making power" means that all of the small decisions add up quickly. Which would explain why shopping is so exhausting. Researchers found that shoppers who "had already made the most decisions in the stores gave up the quickest" on a math test. Once you're mentally depleted, you're more likely to make trade-offs. To compromise is a complex human ability and therefore one of the first to decline when willpower is depleted.  At the end of the day, when we're more physically and mentally fatigued, we're more likely to skip the gym after work or drink more during happy hour. 

2.   Your brain needs glucose in order to make good decisions
Even the wisest people won’t make good choices when they’re not rested and their glucose is low, researchers have found. It’s not a good idea to restructure the organization at 4 p.m and you shouldn’t make major commitments during the cocktail hour. If a decision must be made late in the day, don’t do it on an empty stomach. Grocery retailers discovered this decades ago. After shoppers have made all their decisions in the aisles, their willpower is reduced and they’re vulnerable to any kind of temptation, but especially vulnerable to candy and soda, which are located at the checkout stand.
 

3.   Develop habits and routines to conserve mental energy

We use the same mental energy reserves to fight off temptation as we do to make complex decisions. Smart people develop routines to eliminate stress and conserve energy for important decisions. The most successful people don’t use their willpower as a last-ditch defense to stop themselves from disaster. Rather, they conserve willpower by developing effective habits and routines in school and at work so that they reduce the amount of stress in their lives. They use their self-control not to get through crises but to avoid them. They give themselves enough time to finish a project. For example, they regularly check-up on their car so they can take it to the shop before it breaks down.

4.  Women help groups make better decisions

A study evaluating 192 groups found that those with women had the highest group intelligence, according to research published in the Harvard Business Review.

5.  Because your conscious attention is limited, enlist the help of your unconscious

Even if you don't have the option to delay your decision, engaging in another activity will take your mind off your dilemma and allow your unconscious to surface. 

            6.  Sometimes, it's best to run your ideas by others

     Wise people have a network of people they go to for advice, but they also know when too 
     many ideas complicate their decision-making. 

             7. Deciding NOT to decide -- or having others do it for you

Instead of deliberating every morning whether or not to force yourself to exercise, set up regular appointments to work out with a friend. This makes you accountable to your desired goal without you having to decide everyday. To conserve energy in the short run, this is a good move.

8. Prepare for your moments of weakness -- because we're only human, after all

Good decision making is not a trait of the person, in the sense that it’s always there. It’s a state that fluctuates. Studies show that people with the best self-control are the ones who structure their lives so as to conserve willpower. They don’t schedule endless back-to-back meetings. They avoid temptations like all-you-can-eat buffets and they establish habits that eliminate the mental effort of making choices. Instead of counting on willpower to remain robust all day, they conserve it so that it’s available for emergencies and important decisions. The best decision makers are the ones who know when not to trust themselves. The keys are planning ahead, not overwhelming yourself with choices and conserving your energy because at the end of the day, you do have to make decisions.