We live in a fast-paced world where just about everyone seems to be concerned about how to get more done in less time. While there are a lot of great ways to be more efficient, shortcutting your decision making process is not one of them. (Shrinking your to-do list, on the other hand, is a great tool, but that’s a subject for another post.)

It can be tempting to rush the decision-making process, but it’s often a bad deal in the making – the less time we take to consider our options thoroughly, the less likely we are to make a good decision. Here’s the physiological part you need to know: the part of our brain that regulates emotions (the amygdala) works faster than the part of our brain that processes logic (the pre-frontal cortex). When it comes to decision-making, this is important – the quicker you make a decision, the more likely it is that you are making a decision using only a part of your brain, rather than a balance of feeling and thinking. Like any decision made with only half your data, the quality of that decision is going to be impacted. This is how and why high-pressure sales tactics can be very effective in getting us to make purchases we later regret. (I’m not talking about dealing with a situation that requires a rapid response that you are trained to handle – i.e. a surgeon who has to make a split-second decision to save a patient’s life. In those cases, going with one’s gut usually produces better results.)

If you find yourself making choices in the moment that you regret later, try this simple change: slow down. Just the act of taking a little extra time to consider your choice can make a really big difference – it gives the pre-frontal cortex a chance to catch up with the amygdala. You might be surprised at what a difference it makes with your decision-making. I know a lot of clients in my practice have found it helpful.