Hacking Your Brain to Enhance Decision-Making
“Great decision-making comes from the ability to create the time and space to think rationally and intelligently about the issue at hand” – Graham Allcot
The cost and the value of our decisions
On 1 April 1976, Ronald Wayne, a retired electronics industry business executive, became a co-founder of a company with two other individuals. Wayne had concerns about the financial risks involved with this venture. He could not afford to take these risks, so just 12 days later he sold his 10% stake in this company for $800 to the other two co-founders. In 1977, Wayne accepted the final payment of $1,500 to give up any future claims against the newly incorporated company.
The name of this company is Apple. In November 2024, the estimated worth of Wayne’s 10% stake was over $345 billion.
Wayne’s decision to sell his stake in Apple is often cited as one of the costliest decision-making mistakes in business history. However, the man himself insisted that this was the right decision based on the information available at the time because it was made with due consideration of his financial security, health and peace of mind. Mr Wayne did not want to become the richest man in the cemetery.
Conscious and unconscious decision-making
According to some internet sources, an average adult makes up to 35,000 decisions every day. Yet not all of those decisions are conscious, i.e. made with a conscious thought or mental effort. The late Dr Daniel Kahneman, Nobel Prize winner and author of Thinking, Fast and Slow argued that up to 95% of our thinking (and resulting decisions) may be happening in “System 1” – fast, automatic, intuitive and operating below the level of our awareness with little or no effort. This mode of thinking enables us to make quick decisions and judgments based on patterns and experiences. It relies on mental shortcuts called heuristics to make decisions. The rest of our thinking and decision making is happening in “System 2” which is rational, slow, deliberate, conscious and requiring intentional effort. We use this mode of thinking for complex problem-solving and analytical tasks. You can listen to a podcast with Dr Kahneman to find out more about his views on decision-making and “System 1” and “System 2” thinking.
It may be tempting for some to off-load all decision-making to the “System 1” thinking, but we know from research that, in order to make better decisions in complex situations, we must use our conscious thoughts. This is particularly important for those in a position of leadership who have to make sound business decisions every day while avoiding the psychological fallacies, or systematic errors associated with speedy and effortless “System 1” thinking. You can find more information about cognitive and human factors in expert decision making, and how to overcome bias, in the article published by Dr Itiel E.Dror from the University College London (UCL).
Beware of the decision fatigue
According to social psychologist Roy F. Baumeister, self-control and decision-making share the same reservoir of mental energy which gets used up with time leading to decision fatigue – the emotional and mental strain resulting from a burden of choices. It is a natural response to the overworked brain. If left unchecked, it can lead to impulsive decisions; avoidance and procrastination; indecisiveness and regret; default/status quo choices and inertia; greater susceptibility to biases and cognitive and emotional depletion. The constant stress of decision making can gradually develop into anxiety which reduces our ability to make good decisions and eventually can trigger a vicious circle where each new bad decision increases stress and anxiety.
You can find some useful strategies for overcoming decision fatigue in this article.
Brain hacks to reduce decision fatigue and enhance decision-making
- Refrain from making important decisions on an empty stomach – according to research, ghrelin (a hormone which is released when you are hungry) has a negative effect on both decision making and impulse control. The higher your ghrelin levels, the less rationally you tend to act. Have a stash of healthy snacks that have glucose to re-fuel your brain when needed.
- Go to a darkened room – scientists from the University of Toronto Scarborough established that turning down the light can reduce the impact of your emotions on decision-making, most of which usually takes place under bright light.
- Watch something move in a clockwise direction to induce a mental state of future orientation, which is conducive to creative decision-making and problem-solving.
- Start with clear intention to focus your attention and energy and to bring the brain into the picture by activating all its regions and networks involved in the planning of desired outcomes and actions needed to achieve them.
- Create constraints (limitations or restrictions that define the parameters within which decisions are made) to reduce choices, conserve brain power and speed up decision-making. Examples of useful constrains include defining the “good enough” criteria, limiting your options to “magic three” and setting time limits for making decisions.
- Welcome discomfort – it is an integral part of making difficult decisions. Treat it as a sign to check your core values and beliefs underlying these decisions in order to problem-solve and balance out the emotional and intellectual variables. You grow your decision-making capability and expand your decision-making capacity every time you overcome this discomfort. As Roy Disney once said, “Decision making is easy when your values are clear.”
- Use decision-making tools to make quick, effective decisions. Explore the BRAIN Decision Making Acronym, the BRAIN Worksheet for Informed Decision Making and the free BRAIN Decision Making App – all are very effective and easy to use. This article outlines some other popular decision-making tools and strategies which you can test to find which ones work best for you.
- Recognise and mitigate biases which can impair your ability to make good decisions. This article contains a few useful hacks for avoiding cognitive biases.
- Practise perspective taking to gain additional information about complex situations and to activate brain regions linked with creative thinking and exploration. The Nano Tools For Leaders® can help you to master this hack.
- Sleep on your decisions if possible (even if it is just a short nap)– we know from research that sleep can improve information processing and decision-making. Sleep deprivation, on the other hand, has a negative impact on a variety of cognitive domains, including vigilant attention, working memory, inhibitory control, cognitive control, problem solving, risk-taking, judgment, and decision-making.
- Control your bladder to decrease impulsive decisions – as strange as it sounds, researchers from the Netherlands discovered that controlling your bladder makes you better at controlling yourself when making decisions about your future.
- Practise good self-care (physical, mental, emotional and social) – sound decision-making relies on “System 2” thinking which requires a lot of energy. Taking good care of your health and wellbeing will ensure that you will never run on an “empty tank”.
You can learn even more about making good decisions with the brain in mind from the audiobook “Neuroscience and Critical Thinking: Enhance Memory, Sharpen Decision-Making, Regulate Emotions, and Avoid Logical Fallacies” by Russell Newton and from podcast Neuroscience of Effective Decision Making with Dr. Bill Crawford.
Want to know more about brain hacking? My next article will follow soon!
