![]() Decision quicksand leads us to be so narrowly focused on a choice that we think the world revolves around that decision. Once it goes off, you have to choose whichever option you were looking at last. I’m going to pick a flight in 10 minutes, period. Decide how much time you want to spend in advance. Want to avoid the quicksand? Here are 3 simple ways out. We’ve spent an hour on a trivial decision and we can’t figure out a way to escape. We start spending more and more effort and the decision comes to seem more and more important. So we devote more energy to the decision, collect more information, and sink deeper into the quicksand. If the decision is this difficult it MUST be worth my time and effort. And this unexpected difficulty leads us to think that the decision must be more important than we originally thought. Often there are many options to sift through, or conflicting tradeoffs on different dimensions. Like a walk in the park.īut unimportant decisions frequently end up being more difficult than we expect. Which entrée to choose? Which flight to pick? That should be easy! Just pick and go. We don’t expect the same difficulty, however, for less important decisions. They require, and deserve, careful deliberation and weighing of alternatives. We expect important decisions, like whether to switch jobs or buy a house, to be difficult. The reason it happens is less about you and more about the situation. It doesn’t mean you are bad at decision making. If something like this has happened to you, don’t worry. You’re trapped and you can’t seem to find a way out. ![]() You’re struggling and struggling but the harder you work the more you get sucked in. What if you get it wrong? Will the meal be terrible? Will you wish you went somewhere else?īefore you know it you’ve spent 45 minutes scanning menus online…and your stomach is starting to grumble. Suddenly a choice that seemed relatively unimportant starts to feel more weighty and consequential. Both seem good in some ways and bad in others. You compare each dimension one by one, weighing the benefits of each. The Italian place has great food, but didn’t someone say that new Greek place was worth checking out? And what about that Sushi place you like? It’s close by, but you had to wait a while last time to be seated. Five minutes at the most.īut then you begin comparing options. You think you’ll quickly pick something and move on. It’s a decision, sure, but a pretty trivial one. You’re relaxed, happy, and ready to knock it out. You’re choosing a vacation destination or a restaurant to go for dinner. You’ve been caught in something my colleague and I call “Decision Quicksand.” Not only does it lead to wasted time, it also makes people unhappy and less satisfied with choice. Have you ever agonized over which restaurant entrée to order? Which shade of white to paint the kitchen? Which flight to purchase? If so, you’re not alone. Here are 3 ways to avoid this painful phenomenon. We often get sucked into trivial decisions.
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