Decisions

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Make Better Decisions With This Spreadsheet

4:00AM January 26, 2012 | Melanie Pinola

The best way to tackle a problem — whether it’s something big like what car to buy or as small as where to eat out — is to evaluate the possible solutions. This Excel spreadsheet helps weigh all your options and find the best choice. More »

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InDecision Weighs Up Decision Pros And Cons

8:00AM January 3, 2012 | Jason Chen

iOS: One of the standard ways of making a difficult decision is laying out the pros and cons of the situation, then counting which list is greater than the other. But what if some points matter more than others? The inDecision app helps you out with this. More »

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How To Stop Second-Guessing Your Decisions

1:30AM December 21, 2011 | Thorin Klosowski

A recent study in the journal Personality and Individual Differences reveals that second-guessing your decisions may lead to unhappiness. For people who seek to always find the “right-choice,” life can be made more difficult. Fighting against second-guessing isn’t impossible, so we’ll highlight a few tricks to curb your regret. More »

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Overcome Bias By Outsourcing Your Decisions

8:00AM July 31, 2011 | Shep McAllister

It’s never easy to listen to something you don’t want to hear, which is exactly why you should outsource some of your important decisions to less-invested friends. In some cases, giving up a little control can even save your life. More »

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Thinking Only In The Short Term Halts Your Ability To Accomplish Multiple Goals

8:00AM June 11, 2011 | Adam Dachis

If you’re one of those people who has many goals and feels compelled to do everything at once, you’re probably familiar with the disappointment of accomplishing very few of them. This is likely because you’re pursuing everything at once, thinking of them all as goals you have to accomplish now, rather than taking them one at a time and planning your success over the long term. More »

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Choose This Twitter Bot Solves Your Problems

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1:30PM May 30, 2011 | Angus Kidman

Weighing up two options and can’t decide between them? Just tweet your dilemma using the phrase “I don’t know whether to A or B” and it will randomly pick one of the two options. More »

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Save Time Later By Making Decisions Now

9:00AM May 1, 2011 | Alan Henry

Whether you call it analysis paralysis or simple procrastination, there’s something to be said for the “shut up and ship” approach to getting things done. Sometimes when you’re faced with a dozen options, the best solution is to trust your gut, pick one, and just do something instead of doing nothing. More »

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Consider Whether You’re Solving The Bigger Problem When Stuck

8:00AM March 23, 2011 | Kevin Purdy

Sometimes a challenge seems obvious: make something go X miles using Y components. Such was the case in the 1960s and 1970s, when engineers tried to make a plane that could fly using only human power. One engineer realised — correctly, ingeniously — that the problem wasn’t physics, but the plane building process. More »

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Weak Evidence Leads To Bad Decisions

6:00AM March 18, 2011 | Adam Pash

When you’re asked to make a decision after having heard “weak” evidence (that is, accurate information that only marginally raises the probability of an outcome), you’re much more likely to make the wrong decision regarding an outcome—and be more pessimistic about the supported outcome—according to experiments performed by cognitive scientist Philip Fernbach. More »

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How Difficult Decisions Trick Your Brain Into Thinking They’re Important

12:30AM March 4, 2011 | Whitson Gordon

Have you ever stood in the supermarket, deciding between two different types of toothpaste, when suddenly you realise you’ve been there for ten minutes? Here’s how you’re being tricked into thinking small decisions are actually important. More »