5 Unobvious Ways To Become A Better Decision-Maker

We make countless decisions every day. We make small simple choices (e.g., what to eat for lunch) and life-altering decisions (e.g., to change a career). And we naturally want to be effective in that. The usual advice would be to weigh the pros and cons as well as gather more information. That’s certainly useful but there are more unobvious tricks to explore, too.

5 Not-So-Obvious Ways To Improve Your Decision-Making

Play Games

Okay, sounds like an excuse to have fun but it really works. Many games — chess, Just Casino card games, strategy games like Civilization, etc. — require you to anticipate outcomes and make decisions under pressure. When playing, you’re constantly evaluating situations and considering various possibilities. In effect, games mimic real-life decision-making scenarios and prepare you for them.

If you want to use this trick, choose games that require strategic thinking (vs chance, coordination, or fast reflexes). Set aside time each week to play and reflect on the choices you made during the game. Think about how they could apply to real-world situations. This especially applies to real money games like those at slotspeak.com/jack-and-the-beanstalk-demo/ and the like.

Learn From People of Different Ages

We often seek advice from people similar to us. Intuitively, this makes sense. In practice, it leads to biases. And if you broaden your circle to include people of different ages, you’ll get fresh perspectives that may enrich your decisions. For example, younger people might offer innovative ideas. Older individuals, in turn, can provide wisdom from experience.

Here are a few ideas as to how to use this trick:

engage with people of different ages
ask for their opinions on decisions you’re facing and listen to their reasoning
attend events, join clubs, or participate in community activities
pay attention to how people’s experiences shape their decisions
incorporate methods that seem to be effective into your approach.

Set Deadlines for Decisions

One common issue with making decisions is overthinking. When you have too much time to decide, you get stuck (not necessarily but quite commonly( in analysis paralysis. That is, you want your decision to be perfect and end up making none at all. Deadlines force you to act. They push you to prioritize what’s truly important.

This doesn’t mean you must rush into decisions without thought. Rather, you should set a reasonable timeframe within which you must choose. For example, set small deadlines for less critical decisions. Give yourself 15 minutes to decide what to make for dinner. Then, take 24 hours to choose between two weekend plans. You may further apply it to more significant decisions. The pattern is always like this:

stick to your deadline
make your decision
move forward without second-guessing.

Seek Decisions, Don’t Avoid Them

When the stakes are high or the outcomes uncertain, we prefer not to make any decisions at all. That’s natural. But you can’t improve in what you avoid. In a way, it is like a muscle — you must use it if you want it to get stronger.

Make a habit of saying “yes” to situations where you’ll have to decide. Start with smaller decisions and gradually tackle more significant ones. Over time, this will reduce your hesitation and anxiety around making decisions.

Ask AI to Complete an Affinity Map for You

This one is a modern, tech-savvy approach to improving your decision-making skills. An affinity map is a visual representation of ideas, data, or concepts grouped together based on their natural relationships. AI-driven affinity mapping can take the guesswork out of organizing your thoughts and options. This is especially helpful when you’re dealing with a lot of information. You can see connections and consider multiple factors or viewpoints.

To get started, feed the AI your data. The AI will group it into clusters and show you patterns. Thanks to the latter, you’ll be able to streamline the decision-making process.

Final Thoughts

Making decisions often feels tough because it is a responsibility. But it’s likewise a necessity and if so it seems to be wiser to improve this skill than to avoid scenarios that require us to make decisions.