7 Steps to More Rational Decision-Making

Have you made a decision you regret? Or have you felt stuck making an important choice? We’ve all had those feelings.

Making a decision, especially an important one, shouldn't be done impulsively or without proper consideration. A structured approach can help you ensure you’re not just reacting, but proactively shaping your future.

This post offers seven steps to refine your decision-making. Whether you're someone who tends to be indecisive or someone seeking to enhance the quality of your choices, these actionable steps might help you feel more in control.

1. Avoid narrow framing

When considering your options, there are often more than you realize. For example, when something you own breaks, you might think your only choices are to buy a new one or fix the old one—but you can also borrow, rent, upcycle, part-exchange, and more. So, spend some time looking for options you might not have considered straight away.

2. Explore your intrinsic values

Intrinsic values are things you care about for their own sake, regardless of whether they bring you anything else (like money or status). You can also think of intrinsic values as terminal values—these are things you ultimately want or care about, rather than stepping stones to some other goal. Figure out your intrinsic values, and spend time reflecting on which of your options conforms best to them.

3. Consider the impact of biases

There are common biases that might affect you when you’re making decisions, such as short-term bias (the tendency to prioritize short-term gain over longer-term outcomes), the sunk cost fallacy (reluctance to "cut your losses" after investing time, effort, or money into something), and ignoring the probabilities of outcomes.

Take some time to consider any biases that may be influencing your thinking. Are you ploughing on with a project you’re less-than-excited about because you don’t want to feel like you’ve wasted time? Is your tendency towards optimism making you overestimate your likelihood of success (or vice-versa)?

4. Reflect on your principles

Your principles are "rules of thumb" that you use to make decisions. They should reflect your values and provide useful heuristics you can apply when faced with a hard choice. For example, you might aspire to always tell the truth or to seek constructive feedback wherever possible. Build a list of your principles and reflect on which of them might be relevant to your decision. If you have any relevant principles, reflect on what they suggest you should do.

5. Learn from your past mistakes

Think of a decision you’ve made in the past which you would consider a mistake. Try to identify the immediate cause and the root cause of the mistake. Reflect on those causes and then consider what you can do to stop yourself from repeating that mistake in the short term and the long term. Reflect on how you can avoid making that mistake with the decision you have been considering in the previous steps.

6. Set effective goals

To increase the chances that your decisions take you where you want to go in life, try setting effective goals and reflecting on whether your decisions will take you closer to those goals. To set effective goals, do things such as make your goal challenging (but not too challenging); make it about achieving what you want (rather than avoiding what you don’t); make it meaningful; and check your commitment level.

7. Make your decision

Once you go through these steps, you should feel more confident and certain of the decision you want to make.

No decision-making process can guarantee that you’ll never make a mistake, but a more systematic approach can help you avoid impulsive choices that you’re more likely to regret.

Decision-Making Essential Reads

How to Stop Procrastinating on Big Scary Decisions

From Green Lights to Red Flags

Implementing this process is something you’re likely to get better at with time. Consider each choice you’re faced with an opportunity to refine your approach.