Making the right decision at the right time shapes your life and future, and decision-making is a skill that needs to be learned and nurtured with time.
Good decision-making starts with a good perception of the problem, situation, and solution.
Take guidance from the following 5 books to learn about effective decision-making:
Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
“The premise of this book is that it is easier to recognize other people’s mistakes than our own.”
Kahneman highlights that our thinking process combines fast (intuitive) and slow (deliberate) thinking, and any decision we make results from one of the two. Fast or intuitive thinking is a quicker way of thinking that operates involuntarily. On the other hand, slow thinking needs efforts to focus on complex computation and choice. Effective decision-making requires both fast and slow thinking to include an intuitive and analytic approach while making our decisions.
Read this book if you need to decide by balancing your rationale and emotions.
Buy this book here.
Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
“Success emerges from the quality of the decisions we make and the quantity of luck we receive.”
We often make poor choices when our decision is hazed by prejudice, dilemma, and blind faith. This book states the winning formula for creating an effective decision:
- Widening your options
- Testing your assumptions over reality
- Attaining distance before deciding and,
- Preparing to be wrong
While making the decision, the confirmation bias restricts us from seeing the naked truth, overriding our preassigned beliefs. Checking the decision from the third person’s perspective helps you understand your choice’s rationale.
Read this book if you need to make decisions for yourself and others in your workplace.
Buy this book here.
The Art of Thinking Clearly by Rolf Dobelli
“If your only tool is a hammer, all your problems will be nails,”
Clear thinking is the foundation for effective decision-making. Overthinking and bias often fog our decision-making process and lead us to wrong decisions. That’s why thinking clearly will guide you to go closer to the correct decision, and this book is the key to understanding the process.
Read this book if you want to avoid the trap of cognitive bias while making choices and decisions.
Buy this book here.
Smart Choices: A Practical Guide to Making Better Decisions by John S. Hammond, Ralph L. Keeney, and Howard Raiffa
“Only fundamental objectives should be used to evaluate and compare alternatives.”
Making a wise decision depends on assessing problems from every angle and then deciding after checking all possible alternatives. The authors stress how any decision-making should start by defining the problem, determining criteria for objectives, and finally assessing all the alternatives from each perspective. A possible framework for decision-making must include highlighting the problem, objective, alternatives, consequences, and trade-offs.
Read this book while making a vital decision in your life where alternatives you are not choosing are equally crucial to your decision.
Buy this book here.
Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness by Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein
“The first misconception is that it is possible to avoid influencing people’s choices.”
A little “Nudge” can make a big difference in making choices and decisions related to it. The book unfolds the tricks of decision-making for individuals, businesses, and governments using the nudge technique. While the traditional economic theory assumes humans are rational beings, the real-life scenario contradicts this linear assumption. Why, for instance, do individuals opt for smoking and drinking despite understanding the health risks? The answer lies in the immediacy of benefits compared to its delayed adverse outcome. Similarly, the delayed rewards of healthy eating and exercise are often overlooked by its instantaneous toll.
Read this book to understand how to decide while considering our behaviours’ irrationality, choices, and preferences.
Buy this book here.
So, which book are you planning to read first? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
