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How to empower your mind and promote good judgment in decision making and problem solving

We always face problems in everyday life, and make decisions on a daily basis. From small things like what you will cook for lunch? Or big things like what course I should take in order to succeed in my profession? So how will we empower our mind and promote good judgment in making decisions and problem solving? Check out my interview with Sir Adrian Castellano, a Bachelor of Psychology graduate, and a senior HR executive. And heads up for additional helpful tricks for you!

1. Be open for varying ideas

In making a decision, keep an open mind and listen to other people’s ideas without immediately judging them based on your own set of standards or ego. Keeping your mind open to other people’s ideas widens your options, and promotes an outside of the box thinking. You could also merge your own and other people's ideas to create the most effective solutions!

2. Time management

Sort your priorities

Learn how to properly allocate your time and mental effort based on the value of the decision or problem. Put more time to think about decisions that are important and need a lot of consideration, and prioritize decisions or problems based on their urgency and importance. You could make a list using the Eisenhower Method to help you sort which and what decision or problem you’ll fix first.

Set deadlines

Setting up a deadline to have a timeline you would follow, and motivates you to manage your time wisely. For some people, deadlines prevent procrastination, because if you’re working on a limited time, you would be motivated to use your time productively. But setting up deadlines doesn’t mean to force you to be rushed. Be careful of having this mindset about deadlines, or else it will lead you into making rash decisions, and resolving to short cut solutions.

3. Be watchful of cognitive biases

Make sure that your own biases don't influence your decision making. Know your own cognitive biases and keep an eye on them, so you’ll be able to notice when your decisions are already being driven by these biases. Or else, you’re risking making an illogical decision and misjudging its consequences.

In my interview with Sir Addie, he admitted that regardless of how seasoned a recruiter you are, sometimes you can still make bad judgments on the candidate. So to minimize this, he bases his judgment on his candidate— by a thorough interview. In these interviews, sir Adie will ask a question to the candidates then follows up the next question based on their answer, or he will rephrase his questions. He also creates a make up scenario to gauge how competent and knowledgeable the candidate is at work, or if they’re just painting themselves good?

4. Thought based, not emotional based

There are instances that some of Sir Addie’s candidates share their bad experiences with him. So as a recruiter, to make sure that these will not cloud his judgment, he sets emotional barriers, and makes sure that he doesn’t absorb the negative things that his candidates share. When we are emotional, it creates a "tunnel vision" where our emotions beats our logical thinking.

5. Pause

When you’re already feeling like you’ve been thinking hard for a solution for the nth time and still don’t get anything in your mind, pause for a while. You could take a breather, take a few minutes walk outside, or sip your favorite beverage, then come back into thinking once you feel your mind clear again.

6. Exercise

Besides its benefit to our body, and improving our mood, a lot of studies have shown that exercise is also beneficial to improving cognitive performance and reduces the risk of neurodegeneration. Exercise helps you sleep better at night too. Since the brain repairs itself during sleep, it will improve your mental alertness and help you have a clearer mind. You don’t need to have any grandiose equipment to exercise, even a walk every morning will do!

7. Rest

Sir Addie prioritizes his work and life balance, so it will not burn him out psychologically. Sir Addie makes sure that weekends are his rest days, and he spends that time with his kids. He programs himself that work related things should be left at the office, and personal related things be left at home. When people are physically or mentally tired, they tend to commit errors or make bad decisions because their brain cannot process properly. So when your mind or body is already tired, Rest!

8. Reflect

Looking back at your previous decision could help you see the loopholes to your decisions, and empowers your mind to promote better decision making in the future.

Conclusion

To sum up every tips included in this blog:

Keep an open mind to other ideas and withhold your judgment until you’ve gathered enough ideas to sift through the best of them.

Use your time and mental resources wisely. The Eisenhower Method could help you sort your priority.

Beware of your cognitive biases and emotions to cloud your judgment.

Separate work life and personal life. Don’t forget to rest and have quality time for yourself and your loved ones.

You should not forget, but rather, reflect on your previous decision making process or how you’ve handled a problem before. It will help you in empowering your mind for your future decision making and problem solving.