Trying to settle on an important work choice? We all know about the value of researching your options, making a pros and cons list, and talking over the details with objective and informed colleagues.
However, employing an out-of-the-box and effective science-based trick might just be the ticket when it comes to clarifying your thoughts and options. Use one or more of these strategies to help yourself come to the correct conclusion.
Head for the lobby
A new Miami University study finds that making a business decision while on a high floor in your office building may lead to the wrong choice. The study found that the higher up you're located, the more powerful you feel -- and that may make you overconfident.
The same overconfidence can happen if you're ascending in an elevator while trying to make a decision, by the way.
The researchers say that the lower you physically go in your environment, the more perspective you have, so take a trip down to your first floor to ponder your final move.
Get a good night's sleep
Swiss researchers report that sleeping only five hours per night for one week made 11 out of 14 study subjects act in a riskier way when it came to financial decisions.
They think this is because the brain's right pre-frontal cortex operates best on 7.5 to 8 hours of sleep, so make sure you're rested before tackling a challenging choice.
Make your choice after lunch
The hormone gherlin, which is released when we're hungry, has a negative effect on our brain's mechanism for impulse control, according to research from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden. Grab a meal, and your ability to make a safe determination sharpens.
Calm down
A recent Massachusetts Institute of Technology study found that chronic stress may affect the ability to decide between a risky decision with a high potential payoff, as opposed to a safer choice. The researchers believe this is because chronic stress can adversely affect the striosome circuit in the brain's prefrontal cortex.
More research on this topic is needed, but in the meantime, it can't hurt to pursue daily stress relief however you can.
Yoga, meditation, regular exercise and talking through problems that are bothering you with a close friend or family member are all positive steps toward getting relief, and subsequently being able to choose more rationally and fruitfully.
Talk through your options in a foreign language
Really! If you speak Spanish as a second language, for example, talking out the decision you need to make in that language will give you a sense of emotional distance that will help you deliberate logically.
This study, from the University of Chicago, found that when we speak about a choice in our native language, we subconsciously experience more acquired emotion than when we do when we speak a more utilitarian learned language.
Que pasa? A better outcome for your business!
