How to Make Better Decisions That Move You Forward in Life

Some decisions are easy to reverse: what to eat for dinner, which film to watch. Others shape years of your life: whether to move, change careers, end a relationship, have children or start a business. For those, it's worth having a method.

Here's a practical approach that draws on well-known decision research, including the framework Chip and Dan Heath set out in their book Decisive.

1. Widen your options

Many big decisions get framed as yes or no: "Should I quit my job?" "Should I move to London?" That narrow framing is one of the most common decision traps. Business-school researcher Paul Nutt, who studied hundreds of organisational decisions, found that decisions framed as a single "whether or not" choice failed more often than those where several alternatives were considered.

Before deciding, ask:

What else could I do? Generate at least three options.
Could I do both, or a bit of each?
What would I do if my current options suddenly disappeared?
Who has faced a similar choice, and what did they do?

"Should I quit my job?" might become: quit, ask for a transfer, negotiate part-time hours, start a side project, or change teams.

2. Test your assumptions

We tend to seek out information that confirms what we already believe, a well-documented bias. Counter it deliberately:

Ask what would have to be true for each option to be a good choice. Then check.
Look for disconfirming evidence. What would make you change your mind?
Talk to people who've done it, not just people who'll reassure you.
Run a small experiment. Before moving cities, spend a week there. Before starting a business, sell to a few customers. Before changing careers, shadow someone for a day or take a short course.

Small tests often reveal more than weeks of thinking.

3. Get some distance

Strong emotions, especially fear and excitement, make the immediate consequences of a choice feel bigger than they really are. A few ways to step back:

10-10-10. Ask how you'll feel about each option in ten minutes, ten months and ten years. The method, popularised by Suzy Welch, often shows that short-term discomfort matters less than it feels. Our 10-10-10 helper walks you through it, and our article on using 10-10-10 to get unstuck goes deeper.
Advise a friend. Ask: if my best friend were in this situation, what would I tell them?
Sleep on it. For big choices, a night or two between thinking and deciding often brings clarity.

4. Go back to your values

When options are close, your values can break the tie. Write down what matters most to you, such as family, security, adventure, creativity or health, and ask which option honours those values best. A choice that's right for someone else may be wrong for you.

5. Prepare to be wrong

No method guarantees a good outcome, because the future is uncertain. What you can do is decide in advance how you'll know if things aren't working and what you'll do about it.

Set a review date: "I'll give this new role six months, then reassess."
Define warning signs: "If I'm still dreading Mondays by summer, I'll start looking again."
Keep a fallback if possible: savings, skills, relationships.

This turns a frightening, permanent-feeling decision into a more manageable experiment.

Judge the decision, not just the outcome

A good decision can turn out badly because of luck, and a bad one can turn out well. When you look back, ask whether you made a sensible choice with the information you had. That's what you can control.

Try it now

Take one decision you're facing. Write three options, one assumption to test, your 10-10-10 view and a review date. You'll be surprised how much clearer it feels.

Sources and further reading

Nutt (1999), Surprising but true: half the decisions in organizations fail, Academy of Management Executive