Decision-Making Traps You Didn’t See Coming (and how to avoid them)

If you do any research into decision-making mistakes (and I have), you'll discover that there are boatloads of ways you can get in your own way. Luckily, I've narrowed the field to 10 of the most popular or common ones and what you can do about them.

1) Analysis Paralysis

Imagine this: A student wants to buy a new laptop and spends weeks researching different brands, reading reviews, and watching YouTube comparisons.  Every time they are about to decide, they find a small flaw and reconsider.

That's a great example of analysis paralysis, where we gather so much data and so much information that we're overwhelmed. We can't possibly make the best decision, because we've got too many factors and too much information clouding our judgment.

If this is something you're prone to, what can you do about it?

• Set Yourself a Deadline: Even if it's arbitrary. Having a deadline forces you to hold yourself accountable and puts a limit to your waffling.

• Limit Your Options: Too many choices can cause overload. Narrow down what you're looking at so you're considering 2–3 good options max.

• Focus on Good Enough: There is no such thing as the perfect decision. Each one will come with tradeoffs, so don't try to get it 100% right.

• Clarify Top Criteria: Before you start gathering information and creating options, identify what criteria matter most - is it price? Size? Timing? Stick to what you already identified before choosing.

• Remind Yourself of the Cost of Waiting: No decision is a decision in and of itself - and it has costs, too.

2) Confirmation Bias

Imagine this: A voter believes a particular candidate is honest and trustworthy and won’t believe anything they read to the contrary.

Confirmation Bias happens when you're seeking information to help you make a decision, and you don't look at any information that goes against what you already believe.

If this is something you're prone to, what can you do?

• Ask Disconfirming Questions: Ask yourself (or, even better, others) how your decision could be wrong or not the best choice. Search for information that challenges your beliefs. Great questions sound like: "why shouldn't we do this?" or "what's wrong with this idea?"

• Talk to People Who Disagree: Have genuinely curious conversations with people with different viewpoints. Try to understand how their view is (or could be) true.

• Investigate Your Judgments: Our first reactions are often biased because they're automatic. Instead of going with your assumption, get curious about what's causing it.

3) Overconfidence

Imagine this: A new investor watches online videos about stock trading and invests all their savings into a single high-risk stock, expecting huge returns.

Overconfidence is our tendency to make decisions when we know just a little bit about a topic but feel like we know more about it than we do. This leads us to believe that we will be better at the thing we making a decision about instead of having a more moderate perspective on our own abilities.

If this is something you're prone to, what can you do?

• Evaluate Past Decisions: Look at a handful of decisions you've already made. When were you super-sure and it didn’t pan out?

• Ask for Feedback: Who do you know who will poke holes in your decisions or plans? Try to frame your request in a way that encourages others to find problems rather than agree.

• Anticipate Failure: Before making your decision, imagine it being the utterly wrong choice and list out why. Then fix those weak spots before you move forward.

• Get Small Wins: When possible, make decisions that are reversible. Then audit your decision - was your confidence warranted?

4) Decision Fatigue

Imagine this: A manager spends an entire day making important decisions and on the way home, they stop at a restaurant and just order the first thing they see.

Decision Fatigue happens when we make too many decisions back-to-back-to-back. It takes a lot of mental energy to make good decisions, and when we've made too many in a short period of time, that mental energy is depleted and our willingness to focus on the details and "get it right" wanes.

If this is something you're prone to, what can you do?

• Simplify Routine Choices: If you're making too many big choices, keep the small ones simple. Choose the same breakfast, the same workout schedule, the same show to watch. Save your brainpower for the important ones.

• Start Early: Your brain is freshest in the morning. Tackle important choices before life drains you.

• Batch Decisions: Handle related or similar stuff all at one time. If your brain is in the "shopping" mode, for example, buy all the supplies you need. And then, when it's in "hiring" mode, review all the resumes you need to look at.

• Delegate, Delegate, Delegate: Not every choice deserves your brain time. Let someone else decide if it doesn’t really matter.

5) Emotional influence

Imagine this: A father goes to buy a practical, fuel-efficient sedan.  But when he gets to the dealership, he sees a sleek, red sports car that’s exciting and imagines how good it would feel to own.

If you know me, you know I'm a deeply emotional person, and I believe emotions get short shrift in a lot of situations. However, I also understand how they can be distracting and misleading when you're trying to make a good, effective decision. Emotional influence is when we let our emotions have too much of a say in the decision that we're trying to make.

If this is something you're prone to, what can you do? (Come sit by me!)

• Use the 10/10/10 Rule: Ask yourself how you will feel about this decision in 10 minutes, 10 months, or 10 years. (You can use any numbers or any timeframes that resonate most with you.) This will give you some necessary perspective.

• Label the feeling: Name what you're feeling ("frustrated," anxious,""excited") to keep it from taking over. Decide in advance what you need/want to be feeling before you make the decision.

• Pause First: If a decision feels emotional, take a break. Even five minutes of breathing or changing your geography can bring logic back online.

• See it From Someone Else's POV: Ask yourself how someone else would make this decision -- a friend, your boss, your parent, and especially someone you know who is more logical than you are.

6) Short-Term Focus

Imagine this: A friend decides to stay home instead of going to the gym because it's rainy and cold outside, and the couch looks so good.

Short-term focus is making a decision that feels really good now, but might not be the best decision in the long term. It's prioritizing today's mood over tomorrow's outcome.

If you're prone to this, what can you do?

• Use the 10/10/10 Rule: Just like when something is emotionally charged, this technique will give you a future perspective that will help guide your decision.

• Delay Gratification: Practice saying no to tiny immediate rewards just to build the skill of delaying your gratification. Starting small (like waiting 10 minutes before snacking or passing an hour screen-free) can build this muscle.

• Visualize: Imagine living with the future result of today's choice — good or bad. For smaller decisions, give it a few minutes. For bigger ones, give it a day. (A client of mine did this for having a baby and it made her decision obvious.)

7) Choice Overload

Imagine this: A shopper walks into a store to buy a simple bottle of shampoo, but there are so many different brands, types (curly hair, straight hair, dry scalp, etc.), sizes, and scents they spend 20 minutes reading labels, second-guessing, feeling overwhelmed and then walk out without buying anything at all.

Choice overload is a bit like analysis paralysis, but it's less about continuing to look for confirming or disconfirming information and just being overwhelmed by what's on offer.

I experience this all the time, living in New York City. If I want to go to a restaurant, I can find food from literally any country in the world, and when I'm hungry, it's extra easy for me to get overwhelmed. (In those cases, I often delegate the decision to my husband.)

If you're prone to this, what can you do?

• Set Criteria Up Front: Before you even approach your options, identify what matters most (e.g., "I need a moisturizing shampoo under $15" or "Dinner must have noodles and not be spicy").

• Limit Your Options and/or Timing: Give yourself a strict limit of how many options you'll consider or how long you'll consider them. (Studies show your satisfaction drops after reviewing too many choices anyway.)

• What's "Good Enough": Stop aiming for perfect. Find an option that meets your needs, feels good enough, and move on.

• No Decision Is a Decision: Not making a choice is also a decision: one that costs you time, energy, and sometimes opportunity.

  
  

8) Fear of Failure

Imagine this: A recent grad has a great idea for a business, but never actually starts it because they're terrified it might flop, people might judge them, and they'd feel humiliated. So instead, they keep "researching," "planning," or telling themselves "it's not the right time," and the idea goes nowhere.

Being afraid to fail is a natural barrier to good decision-making. And some people, because they're so afraid of making the wrong decision or a bad decision, just won't make a decision at all (which is, in the end, making a decision). Fear of failure can manifest as perfectionism, procrastination, and/or overthinking.

If you're prone to this, what can you do?

• Define "Failure": What, exactly, are you afraid of? Monetary failure? Taking a hit to your reputation? Things not moving as quickly as you'd like? Every decision (and decision-maker) has its own definition, and being clear about what you're afraid of can help you mitigate what happens.

• Reduce the Stakes: Don't treat every decision like it’s a permanent, irreversible, once-in-a-lifetime decision. Think about them more as experiments and opportunities to try something new and learn about outcomes.

• Visualize Recovering: If you can imagine what happens if you fail, you can also imagine how you'd bounce back. Doing this will give your brain the practice it needs to build the recovery muscle.

9) Groupthink

Imagine this: A group of friends is making plans for dinner at a restaurant one person knows is awful, but because everyone else is enthusiastic (or at least nobody else speaks up) that one person goes along with it, knowing it's a bad choice.

Groupthink happens when nobody wants to rock the boat and everyone's desire for harmony or quick agreement outweighs critical thinking, honest opinions, or better decision-making. It can be simply the path of least resistance, but could also be a sign of deeper-seated problems inside the group.

If you're prone to groupthink, what can you do?

• Reflect Before Agreeing: Practice asking yourself,"Do I actually agree with this, or am I just keeping the peace?" Taking a moment to own your opinion is valuable.

• Write Down What You Think: As you head into a discussion, jot down what you think somewhere private. This helps anchor your independent thoughts before group pressure can sway you.

• Ask One Question: If you're nervous to disagree, you can speak up by asking a question. It doesn't have to be aggressive! Something like "What's one more thing we could add to the mix?" or "How can we widen this decision?" could prove useful.

• Separate Belonging from Agreement

  Belonging doesn't require agreeing with everything.Real belonging comes when people value you for your honest mind and your heart.

10) Lack of Information

Imagine this: A traveler books a cheap hotel in a foreign country with great photos without researching further. Upon arrival, they realize the hotel is in a dangerous neighborhood, has poor service, and lacks basic amenities.

Lack of information can impact a decision for a variety of reasons -- the decision is complex, there's time pressure, the problem is unclear, conditions are rapidly changing, information is limited, or it's the first time you're making a decision like this. (It's hard to know what you don't know if you've never tried it before!)

The nice thing about this trap is that (generally,) once you've fallen into it, you're less likely to fall into it in the exact same way again in the future.

If you're prone to this, what can you do?

• Clarify What (Exactly) You Need to Know: You can do this by talking to others who have made this decision before, consulting the internet or AI, or simply thinking through the criteria you need to meet to make an effective decision.

• Limit Your Options and/or Timing: Like I mentioned above, give yourself a boundary because endless searching leads to overload.

• Accept Uncertainty: No decision is ever perfect. When you can accept that your decision may not be the absolute best decision (but is one you can live with), then your confidence in your decision-making ability increases.

Are you facing an important decision and are worried about falling into these traps? Coaching can help! Feel free to reach out for a free consultation!