When should you act quickly?
When it comes to decison making there are two types of personality:
- Maximiser
- Satisficer
Each has their own pros and cons when it comes to decision making.
Maximiser
This type of decision maker wants to make the perfect decision every time. They look at the whole menu, then ask the chef for recommendations, then lookup all the ingredients, then do a price comparison before even thinking about making a food selection.
Satisficer
This decision maker is ‘satisfied’ as soon as their basic needs are met. They look at the menu and select the first thing on the list that is ‘good enough’.
Which is best?
Each approach has pros and cons, neither is a winner all the time. In their pursuit of perfection Maximisers are at risk of burnout, and can take a long time to make a decision. In a world of near limitless possibilities this approach can lead to procrastination as it can be near impossible to say with certainty which decision will lead to the most ‘optimal’ outcome. They can get stuck in analysis paralysis and never make a decision.
Satisficers are never at risk of burnout, they decide on the first thing that meets their basic needs and continue onwards. The distance from perfection is random, depending on which they came across first. The downsides to this approach are there might be a better decision which is easy to make, and only required a tiny amount of extra effort, but is missed - this can lead to lower performance over time. The definition of good enough needs to be rock solid too, otherwise very poor decisions will be made at pace.
A middle ground
When the stakes are low, Satificing is a good choice, as you will get something ‘good enough’ and get it quickly. When the stakes are higher, and the decision will last longer Maximising makes sense as the better option will serve you for longer. However, Maximising needs a cut off point, you need to set a boundary that after a certain point, delaying the decision will cost more than trying to find one that is 0.1% better. So set a date and pick the best option up to that point and commit. If a better options comes along moments later do not look back, focus on the next decision and move fowards.