How to Make Better Decisions in Your Life
By: Vic Womersley
Tags: Behavioral Science, Behavior Change, Thinking, Choices, Decision Making

Making decisions can be hard. What’s more, the more choice we have the harder it becomes and the more likely we are to be overcome with ‘decision paralysis’. This is when we overanalyse and end up doing nothing. But not all decisions are hard, and not all decisions are well thought through. Some are automatic, based on gut feelings. Or chosen without any conscious thought at all. It turns out, we use two different systems of thinking for making decisions through our day: System 1 and System 2.

Too much choice can lead to no decision at all — Photo by Kelsey Curtis on Unsplash

In Thinking Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman’s book, System 2 is described as the slow, deliberate thought we use for decision making. System 1, on the other hand, is our impulsive, automatic and emotional decision-maker. This automatic system can’t be turned off.

System 1 thinking often gets a bad rap, considered to be the less helpful side of us when it comes to directing our lives. Yet fast, System 1 thinking has many benefits, despite its faults. It’s also responsible for around 98% of our daily decisions. Considering we usually reach the end of our day alive and unscathed, it can’t be doing that bad a job.

The good side of fast thinking

Impulsive, emotional and often following first impressions, System 1 thinking is lightening quick and unconscious. This means you can’t switch it off, nor can you reason with it. System 1 sometimes gets handed tasks from System 2 — like tying your laces or touch-typing. These kinds of functions initially called for System 2 to learn them. Through practice and repetition, they became second nature to us, at that point System 2 revoked responsibility and handed it over to System 1.

System 1 thinking is also responsible for keeping us out of danger before we become fully aware of a threat. It makes us wary of dark alleys, unusual patterns of behaviour and out of place noises in our environment. A great example of this is jumping out of the way to the sound of a falling branch before we’re consciously aware danger is literally about to befall us.

System 1 noticed and located the direction of the noise — because it’s always switched on — and prompted our muscles to react and move us out of harm’s way — because it’s primary objective is to keep us safe from harm.

It’s always scanning the environment for threats and due to this, we make it through our day without injury.

System 1 loves spotting patterns and making up stories. It matches these to past experiences and uses them to make sense of our lives. It also helps it make predictions about our present safety and immediate future. System 1 helps us expect the imminent arrival of our children from school or post arriving in our mailboxes each day.

All of these tiny expectations and assumptions are helpful. They require no conscious thought and little energy expenditure. This is a great thing for our basic survival. System 2 is a big consumer of energy and that’s one of the reasons we have evolved the System1/System 2 of thinking — it allows us to conserve our limited energy stores while safely going about our business.

Daniel Kahneman explains System 1 and System 2 thinking

The dark side of System 1

While many functions and thoughts are fine on autopilot, there are times when this can cause us trouble. If we give our System 1 thoughts free rein to guide our reasoning, we are likely to make decisions that include painful biases and ignore the need for further information.

System 1 often works on a ‘What You See Is All There Is’ (WYSIATI) decision-making process. This means, if we’re presented with limited information and don’t actively engage the System 2 side of thinking, we won’t stop to ask questions. We’ll happily assume that Bob Jones is a great leader because he has a strong jawline and broad shoulders. Whereas, if we slow down a little and engage energy-hungry System 2, we’d begin to ask about his interpersonal skills, what his behaviour has been like in past leadership situations, and whether he’s a good listener.

System 1 wants to race ahead and jump over hurdles with ease. It doesn’t want to bother System 2, and often it will try to convince our System 2 that it doesn’t need to get involved. It does this by creating a feeling of confidence.

Confidence is just a feeling but often we let this guide us as though it is a judgement. Overconfidence is to turn in the direction of ill-informed decisions. There’s little we can do to stop the feeling, but we can notice it and when we recognise our confidence, stop and check for further facts.

Knowing when to slow it down

Both System 1 and System 2 are necessary for our optimal function. Neither is better than the other, both serve purposes that we could not function well without. One thing we can do to avoid poor decision-making is to recognise the markers on the way to an impulsive or ill-informed choice.

We’ve already covered the WYSIATI pitfall. Other key indicators you're treading the path to a bad decision are feelings of extreme confidence, the notion that there is a perfect answer, and rushing your choice.

While recognising you’re on slippery ground is important, it’s not a complete solution for making better decisions. Gary Klein’s ‘premortem technique’ is one you can fall back on when you realise you’re on the way to making a mistake.

His idea is to fast forward past the decision to a point in the future when you can look back at the choice you made. This is an excellent technique for all of life’s big decisions, be they personal or professional.

Imagine you’re at a point in the future when you can look back on the results of your decision. Tell a story about why the decision you made worked. List all the things that caused the decision to be a success. Now do the same from the perspective of failure. The more detailed you can be with each scenario, the easier it will be to formulate your plan and make the best, informed choice.

This method works because it helps you to illuminate blind spots in your decision-making process. It helps you clarify your goal, which in turn motivates you to make the decision needed and avoid decision paralysis. It can also temper excessive optimism and confidence as well as pessimistic outlooks.

Decision making can be hard. Recognising our limitations and spotting the signs we’re headed towards a massive fail can help us make better decisions in our lives. Learning when to slow it down and when to relax into the automated functioning of System 1 thought can lead us towards happier lives full of choices we can proudly stand behind.