How to Overcome Decision Paralysis
Too much choice can be paralyzing. Here’s how to make sure too much choice doesn’t give too few results.
In the book The Paradox of Choice, author Barry Schwartz lays out the research on how humans deal with choice. There’s a lot of research, and the results are surprising. Our culture deeply assumes that more choice is good for us. All the research says otherwise. Too much choice can often be worse than no choice.
More choices equals less choosing. You go to the store to get a new suit of clothes for work. You find two great options: a fluorescent paisley leisure suit and a more conservative plush velveteen tiger-striped onesie. The choice is obvious. No one wears a onesie at work, so the next thing you know, you’re walking down the street proudly glowing in your new suit.
More Than Two Choices Can Paralyze Us
With too many choices, you’re much more likely to choose nothing, and start avoiding the decision altogether. Try buying toothpaste. Do you want tartar control? Whitening? Extra-minty breath freshening? Cinnamon flavored? Bubble gum flavored? Total, full-mouth pizazz? Inflatable 3-color bonanza for your tonsils?
ARGH! You freeze, staring at the toothpaste aisle like a deer caught in headlights. It’s too much. You start thinking that it’s easier just to get all your teeth replaced with ceramic crowns. Then you won’t have to make this choice. STOP! You are caught in decision paralysis. Do not get your teeth replaced by crowns. Instead, simply defuse the situation.
Satisfice, Don’t Maximize
Part of your stress comes because you want to make the best decision. That’s called “maximizing.” But there are too many qualities that need to be best: whitening, tartar control, and mouth pizazz. Not to mention price. None of the products maximize all of these things. Instead, “satisfice.” Get the first option that is good enough on the criteria you care about.
Ask yourself what you care about. Then only look at options that address your cares. Settle for the first option that’s good enough, instead of trying for “best.”
What do you want in a toothpaste? Cavity-prevention and low price. Great! Look! On the bottom shelf is Aquafresh. It has all the fluoride, and is 1/3 the price. It satisfies your needs. The fact that it has three colors and freshens your breath is a happy plus.
You’ve made your choice. Now pay and get home to your shmoopie. Find some activity to engage in once you’ve brushed your teeth. I’d suggest specifics, but this is a G-rated article.
Roll the Dice
When faced with too many choices, grab some dice, or a random number generator (I like Random.org and its app, which generates truly random numbers, not wimpy-man fake random numbers). Then roll the dice and choose the option the dice tell you to choose.
“But…but…,” I hear you cry, “I hate that choice!” Excellent. In that case, eliminate it from the lineup and roll the dice again. Choosing randomly like this is actually a way to find out what your unconscious mind thinks. And there’s been a fair amount of research suggesting that your unconscious mind is much better than your conscious mind at complicated decisions.
Even if it isn’t, rolling dice gives you a great scapegoat if things don’t work out. “It’s not my fault! The dice chose the tiger-striped onesie! I was going to buy a suit. Really I was!” (You don’t have to mention the part about the suit featuring fluorescent paisley.)
Learn from Lady MacBeth
One of the things that makes too much choice overwhelming is regret. We mentally choose all the things we like about each option and create a new option in our brain, combining the most desirable features of all of the existing options.
This new option doesn’t exist, of course, but our brain doesn’t know the difference. No matter which choice we settle on, our brain compares it against this non-existent-but-compelling perfect option. We end up regretting our choice because our brain thinks we could have had that perfect choice, even thought it didn’t exist.
“Oh, tartar-control, whitening toothpaste,” we cry, “you can never measure up to the tarter-control, whitening, anti-plaque, three-gel, extra-fluoride, for-sensitive gums toothpaste that sparkles so compellingly in my imagination!”
Fortunately, you can take advantage of the “Lady Macbeth effect.” Lady Macbeth tamed her guilt by washing her hands. Scientists wondered if other things could be tamed by hand-washing. Bizarrely, it works for eliminating the stress caused by hard decisions. After you’ve stressed out from decision paralysis, wash your hands. You’ll be calmer and much more objective about your decision.
In a world of more, decision-paralysis can strike at any time. For the best life experience, limit decisions to only a few choices. Satisfice rather than maximize, and if the answer isn’t clear, roll the dice and let Fate decide. Then wash your hands, so you feel good about your decision. Finally, use a fluoride-fortified toothpaste, wash your hands, and floss to prevent cavities. As attractive as it may be to have all your teeth replaced with crowns, good dental hygiene is easy, painless, and oh-so-minty.
I’m Stever Robbins. Want to stick to your weight loss goals, do your finances regularly, remember to recognize your colleagues for a job well done? Check it my Get-it-Done Groups at SteverRobbins. Image of man unable to make decision © Shutterstock
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About the Author
Stever Robbins was the host of the podcast Get-it-Done Guy from 2007 to 2019. He is a graduate of W. Edward Deming’s Total Quality Management training program and a Certified Master Trainer Elite of NLP. He holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School and a BS in Computer Sciences from MIT.
