Choice Overload: Simplify Your Choices to Make Better Decisions

TOO MANY CHOICES CAN INHIBIT YOUR DECISION-MAKING

Choice Overload can be a troubling foe. For example, I love eating at a Jewish deli. I know walking in that I’m going to order a nice pastrami on rye with coleslaw and two pickles.

But then, out comes that menu. Inevitably, in every Jewish deli I’m confronted with two thousand choices which confounds me. Am I really in the mood for pastrami? Perhaps the matzoh ball soup. Roast beef? OY!

Needless to say, too many choices can usually work against you.  You end up trying to consider each of the choices put in front of you. By doing so, you force yourself away from what is likely the BEST choice because you’ve now convinced yourself that perhaps you’re not making the RIGHT choice.

This my friends, is the dreaded Choice Overload. To help you make the best decisions possible, take the following suggestions under consideration:

IDENTIFY WHAT’S MOST IMPORTANT TO YOU?

Start by taking your personal value system into consideration here. This will help you to immediately dismiss those choices that don’t click with your internal gauging system.

Figure out where you want to end up. Identify those choices that speak to that goal (whatever it may be), and dismiss the rest. But stick to YOUR goals, YOUR desires and YOUR value system.

AVOID F.O.M.O.

The Fear Of Missing Out trend will work against you every time. You need to steer clear of any choice that is made simply because you’re worried that you might be missing out on something.

You have to be strong enough to recognize that if the choice you make pulls you too far from what you’re ultimately trying to achieve, the FOMO you’ll feel will be exponentially worse. Because you’ll have missed out on what’s important to YOU.

CONSIDER A SMALLER RANGE OF CHOICES

Having to take a large number of choices under consideration is a waste of both time and energy.

If faced with this task, learn to recognize that sometimes having too many choices is detrimental. Consider your personal value system. Avoid those choices that don’t speak directly to the task or desire at hand.

OVER INFORMED IS ACTUALLY UNDER INFORMED

When you have too much information to process, you can’t be effective in your decision making.

You spend valuable time poring over documents and intel all with the hope of gathering enough information to make the choice more obvious.

The problem because that you start to experience a bit of analysis paralysis. You feel the need to continue analyzing all of the data you have on hand as if every piece of that data is crucial to your decision making.

Ultimately, that just isn’t the case. When you have too much information and too many choices, you simply don’t have the time, energy or ability to accurately assess what’s in front of you.

WEIGHING THE CHOICES THAT MATTER

To avoid Choice Overload, consider reviewing 3-5 choices at any given point. This way, you have a small enough grouping to give you the time you need to consider each of the choices.

You can learn all of the pluses and minuses that each choice has to offer. You can compare each choice to your own personal goals and values to see which one best lines up.

You can effectively weigh out what’s truly important to you.

ONCE YOU’VE MADE THE CHOICE

The good news about choice overload is that if you manage to avoid it, you’ll likely reduce the amount of stress you’ll feel about the decision you’ve made.

But once that decision is clear, stick to it. Don’t second guess the choice you’ve made. Wishing you’ve had gone a different way or regretting the decision you made is pointless. Always move forward.

Don’t let your yesterday ruin your tomorrow.

But if you start by first LIMITING the number of choices you have to consider, you’re that much less likely to regret the choice you’ve made. Because you’ll have the knowledge that you took the time to legitimately and accurately consider each choice before you made that decision.

Which will ultimately give you the confidence to know that you likely made the right choice whatever it may be.

LAST THING TO CONSIDER…

At the end of the day, we’ve all heard the phrase “indecision is no decision.” But usually, indecision comes out of the inability to MAKE a decision in the first place simply because too many choices are at hand.

Utilize the strategies discussed above to scrutinize how many choices you take under consideration and when too many choices is no choice at all.

In the interim, I’m going to order a pastrami on rye and a latke.