9 Little Habits That Make You a Better Decision Maker

Take Note of Your Overconfidence

Overconfidence can easily make your judgment go awry. Studies consistently show people tend to overestimate their performance and the accuracy of their knowledge.

Perhaps you are 90% sure you know where the office is that you’re visiting. Or maybe you’re 80% certain you can convince your boss to give you a promotion. If you're overconfident about those things, your plans are likely to go awry.

Do you think finishing that report will only take you one hour? Do you predict you’ll be able to pay your online bills in 30 minutes? You might find you’re overconfident in your predictions.

Take time every day to estimate the likelihood that you’ll be successful. Then at the end of the day, review your estimates. Were you as accurate as you thought?

Identify the Risks You Take

Great decision-making also sometimes requires being willing to take a risk. Familiarity breeds comfort.

For example, you might speed on your way to work every day. Each time you arrive safely without a speeding ticket, you become more comfortable driving fast. But clearly, you’re jeopardizing your safety and taking a legal risk.

Or maybe you eat fast food for lunch every day. Since you don’t suffer any immediate signs of ill health, you might not see it as a problem. Over time, however, you may gain weight or experience other health issues.

Frame Your Problems In a Different Way

The way you pose a question or a problem plays a significant role in how you’ll respond and how you’ll perceive your chances of success.

Imagine two surgeons. One surgeon tells his patients, "Ninety percent of people who undergo this procedure live." The other surgeon says, "Ten percent of people who undergo this procedure die."

The facts are the same. However, research shows people who hear "10% of people die" perceive their risk to be much greater.

Stop Thinking About the Problem

Great decisions require careful thinking, but sometimes knowing when to take a break can help clarify your choices.

When you’re faced with a tough choice, like whether to move to a new city or change careers, you might spend a lot of time thinking about the pros and cons or the potential risks and rewards.

While science shows there is plenty of value in thinking about your options, overthinking your choices can be a problem. Weighing the pros and cons for too long may increase your stress level to the point that you struggle to decide.

Or get yourself involved in an activity that takes your mind off a problem. Let your brain work through things in the background, and you’re likely to develop clear answers.

Set Aside Time to Reflect on Your Mistakes

Making great decisions often requires reflecting on where things went wrong in the past. Whether you left the house without an umbrella and got drenched on the way to work, or you blew your budget because you couldn’t resist an impulse purchase, set aside time to reflect on your mistakes.

Make it a daily habit to review the choices you make throughout the day. Ask yourself what went wrong when your decisions don’t turn out well. Look for the lessons that can be gained from each mistake you make.

Keep your reflection time limited—perhaps 10 minutes per day is enough to help you think about what you can do better tomorrow. Then take the information you've gained and commit to making better decisions moving forward.

Acknowledge Your Shortcuts

Although it can be a bit uncomfortable to admit, you're biased in some ways. It's impossible to be completely objective.

Your mind has created mental shortcuts—referred to as heuristics—that help you make decisions faster. And while these mental shortcuts keep you from toiling for hours over every little choice you make, they can also steer you wrong.

Or if you’ve recently consumed a lot of news about plane crashes, you may think your chances of dying in a plane crash are higher than in a car crash (even though statistics show otherwise).

Make it a daily habit to consider the mental shortcuts that lead to bad decisions. Acknowledge the incorrect assumptions you may make about people or events, and you may be able to become a little more objective.

Consider the Opposite

Once you’ve decided something is true, you’re likely to cling to that belief. It’s a psychological principle known as belief perseverance.

For example, you might assume you’re a bad public speaker, so you avoid speaking up in meetings. Or you might believe you are bad at relationships, so you stop going on dates.

You’ve also developed beliefs about certain groups of people. Perhaps you believe, "People who work out a lot are narcissists," or "Rich people are evil."

Those beliefs you assume are always true or 100% accurate can lead you astray. The best way to challenge your beliefs is to argue the opposite.

If you’re convinced you shouldn’t speak up in a meeting, argue all the reasons why you should. Or if you’re convinced rich people are bad, list reasons why wealthy people may be kind or helpful.  

Label Your Emotions

People are often more inclined to say things like, "I have butterflies in my stomach," or "I had a lump in my throat," rather than use feeling words, like sad or nervous, to describe their emotional state.

Many adults just aren't comfortable talking about their feelings. However, labeling your emotions can be the key to making better decisions. Research has shown that giving your emotions a name can help reduce their intensity, making them less likely to negatively impact your choices.

So if you’re nervous about the mortgage application you just filed, you might be less likely to ask someone out on a date because you'll think it sounds too risky.

Excitement, on the other hand, can make you overestimate your chances of success. Even if there’s only a small likelihood you'll succeed, you might be willing to take a big risk if you're excited about the potential payoffs (this is often the case with gambling).

Make it a daily habit to label your feelings. Note whether you're feeling sad, angry, embarrassed, anxious, or disappointed. Then take a minute to consider how those emotions may be influencing your decisions.

Talk to Yourself Like a Trusted Friend

When faced with a tough choice, ask yourself, "What would I say to a friend who had this problem?" You’ll likely find the answer comes to you more readily when you’re imagining yourself offering wisdom to someone else.

It will also help you to be a little kinder to yourself. While you may be likely to say negative things to yourself like, "This will never work. You can’t do anything right," there’s a good chance you wouldn’t say that to your friend. Perhaps you’d say something more like, "You’ve got this. I know you can do it," if you were talking to a friend.

Developing a kinder inner dialogue takes practice. But when you make self-compassion a daily habit, your decision-making skills will improve.