Decide in a Snap!

Do you rely on your gut or consider several options for your major decisions? While many folks agonize, others make quick choices that work for and not against them. Deadlines influence people's outcomes and here's how...

Latest research shows that snap decisions generally work best because you're forced to process quickly. Snap decisions build on intelligence stored our unconscious mind. In his recent book, Gut Feelings, Gerd Gigerenzer pinpoints why intuition trumps reason when putting together stocks for a portfolio...

Interestingly, the less financial knowledge behind choices the better. For instance, women queried by the Gigrenzer's German research team recognized fewer stocks than men, but when they created a portfolio based on familiar companies, they earned more than an equivalent group chosen by the men.

Snap decisions go awry with too much information...

Intuition, it seems, is not some sort of mystical chemical reaction but a neurologically based behavior that evolved to ensure that we humans respond quickly when faced with a dilemma. Too much data throws a monkey wrench into the process. The more variables we consider, the harder it is to make the "right" decision--as anyone who has faced an aisle full of shampoos knows.

And, Malcolm Gladwell author of Blink points out snap decision-making's fragile and easily disrupted.

Gladwell discovered, when asked to rank brands of strawberry jams from best- to worst-tasting without looking at the labels, most people give the same answers. However, when asked to describe what each jam tasted like, these line-ups vary dramatically, and lower-quality jams could be ranked higher.

So wisdom's boosted by frugality.

Are there strategies we can use to get around this? To try and trick yourself into 'snap' judgement?

Or do we just allow the processes to keep rolling in the background - without giving it undue focus - trusting that we'll make the decision when the time's right? From what Gladwell and Gigrenzer discoverd, we'll have to prevent mulling it over too much!

So, here's a tactic...

Imagine your best answer as the red dot on a target board. You mentally throw a dart at that target. No delay. No distractions. No doubts.

Simply throw the dart from the talent pools already existent in your mind and enjoy the results. And then, don't look back. Just trust it. The secret's in just letting go!

Joanna Young queried how to make a snap decision when your deadline's at the end of the week... So we'll be looking for results...