I know I’m not the only one who sometimes all the time finds it hard to make decisions. Should I get mac and cheese or a salad for lunch? Should I watch re-runs of New Girl or The Mindy Project? Should I go out with my friends or should I stay home and be a bum? ARGH. Sometimes it’s just like, someone else make my decisions for me. Please. Because I can’t handle it.
So, yes, a quick tip on how to make a decision in the easiest possible way would definitely be something I’d be interested in – and I’m assuming you would be, too. After all, I think we can all say we’re sick of the back and forth convo with our friends: “Where should we go?” “I don’t care, wherever you guys want to go.” “I don’t care, you pick.” “No, really, I don’t care!”
A new study published in the journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience shows that if you distract yourself for a few minutes, you’ll make a smarter and better decision. Um… I can totally do that!
Does this sound a little weird to you? I can understand that, but these researchers swear that it totally works. Study leader J. David Creswell, Ph.D., says that even when you’re distracted and thinking about other things, “the part of the brain that’s responsible for learning information continues to be active.” He also says, “Your conscious mind has a capacity constraint – it can only think about a couple of features at once. But your unconscious mind doesn’t have these capacity constants. It can weigh all relevant information more effectively.”
Basically, distracting yourself helps you make a decision because it helps your brain let go of all of those annoying little details it can’t help but hold onto. When you’re trying to make a decision, especially a big one, you start considering every tiny little thing. That makes your brain confused and unable to decide on anything. But when you distract yourself and relax your brain for a few minutes, things become more clear.
How should you distract yourself? Up to you. Keep in mind that this distracting should only go on for about two minutes, so don’t plan on plopping yourself in front of a good movie before you decide whether to take that job or not. You can, however, listen to your favorite song, read a cool article on the Internet (Gurl.com… just sayin’) or watch a funny YouTube video. Or, as Jezebel suggests, you can break out your vibrator. Hey, whatever works, right?
How do you make decisions? Do you think you’re really indecisive? How would you distract yourself for a few minutes? Tell me in the comments.