The decisions we make play a vital role in our lives. In many ways, they shape our future. However, not everyone knows how to make wise decisions that can bring them good results.
That said, you might feel very uncertain about how to make decisions that will steer your career, health, financial situation and relationships in the direction you want. Over the past 3 years as a dating expert, I have helped over 100 clients on Luxy — selective dating improve their decision-making process. Here are 9 of effective tips to make smarter decisions.
- Use the Eisenhower Decision Matrix
It’s also referred to as Urgent-Important Matrix, helps you decide on and prioritize tasks by urgency and importance, sorting out less urgent and important tasks which you should either delegate or not do at all.
2. Focus on getting to 90%
Particularly in meetings, the last ten percent of a decision is what puts you far over the time limit. Once you hit ninety percent, you can often make the right decision and table the minutia for follow up. — Sam Saxton
3. Chart the decision on a graph
Put cost of the decision (time or money) on the x-axis, and put impact on your business of the decision on the y-axis. Chart the outcome. If its low cost/high impact, then it’s a no-brainer. If high impact/high cost, then plan the appropriate resources to make it happen. If it’s low impact, then chuck it away.
4. Take control of your emotions
It is therefore, important that you recognize what you are feeling, and deal with your emotions. Fear or uncertainty can lead you to avoid risk, and this can also affect other areas. If you are an excitable person, you may be entirely too optimistic about your prospects. You might take big risks — no matter how small the chances of success.
5. Go somewhere dark
If you cannot control your emotions, try putting yourself in a dark room. This will help make you less emotional — and consequently, improve your decision-making ability.
6. Access your decisions
Analyzing and evaluating past decisions can help you make better ones in the future. When you examine your decisions, you will be able to identify which ones went well, which ones did not — and most importantly — why. This will help you when you consider your next decision.
7. Trust your gut — but use your head
Imagine you’re hiring a sales rep. First, you’d look at all the candidates from an analytical standpoint. That includes hard metrics like how many years of experience each has, how often they met or exceeded their quota, and so on. Then, ask yourself who feels like they’d be the best hire.
Once you combine your analytical and intuitive answers, you’ll be much closer to the right choice.
8. Have a backup plan
Sometimes, a lack of time or information may force you to make hasty or uninformed decisions.Having said that, you probably consider a number of options when making a decision. So, if your decision doesn’t work out as you hoped, you may have the chance to “do it over” and try out another option, or just start the decision-making process anew.
9. Avoid typical pitfalls
The way you think and choose can negatively affect the quality of your decisions. Don’t Make a decision just because you’re comfortable with it. Yet a decision that takes you out of your comfort zone and represents a new direction is usually the best.
We cannot control everything that happens to us; but we can still make decisions.
About Amy Swift: I’m working at Luxy, a selective dating app — download here. I’ve been providing dating advice to Luxy premium members to help maximize their results. If you like my writing here, applaud or leave your comments under below. Thank you so much for reading.
