In general I work to reduce volume of choices I have to make (offload some responsibilities, maybe) and also to reduce the cognitive load each choice imposes. I have a few strategies for the latter (my Partner and 5yo both have a hard time with decision paralysis)...
Basically, I proceduralize the decision-making process in one way or another. The more mechanical I can make the choosing process, the less cognitive load in imposes on me.
Very importantly, there's a skill to letting go of all the other options. You will never get to taste all the ice cream, and you just have to be OK with that. Even if it's not really true because, e.g., you have regular access to that shop, the brain is worse at delaying gratification than it is at letting go of the idea of that particular gratification entirely. Like all skills, you get better at this with practice.
Just tried the consequences thing and it's helpful and different from standard pros/cons as you said. I think I internalized from somewhere that lists and process of elimination don't work which now looks clearly wrong and I want to get into the habit of using more.
make a list of possible consequence-types and your outcome preferences for each type. Maybe rank those preferences.
missed this part on first read, will try that
okay, that was useful and made choice more certain. Thanks for the suggestion.
Do you have a blog? Maybe consider turning th...
I have too many choices in too many things and I can see that it's crippling my ability to get things done.
I'm struggling a great deal now to come up with plans and stick with them. I know choices are bad but I'm not sure what to do about it.
I think the solution from this video on the paradox of choice is to lower expectations but how do you actually do that, routinely?