How to Make Decisions Under Stress: 7 Questions That Help
Here's what's true for every founder.
You have to make a lot of decisions. Big ones. Lots of little ones that add up to be big. Random ones you never would have imagined yourself making.
And when one of them has you circling, the problem usually isn't the decision at all.
Why decisions feel so hard under stress
The science shows that under stress, the prefrontal cortex goes partially offline. That's where your executive thinking function lives. So the region of your brain that handles reasoning and judgment kind of turns off and passes the buck over to the more reactive, reflexive circuits.
This is not a character flaw. It is physiology, and it happens to everyone.
You are not bad at deciding.
You are asking the wrong part of your brain to do the heavy lifting. It's reaching for a hammer when what you need is a drill.
How to make decisions under stress: start with your body
Below are seven questions to help you get unstuck.
But there is a critical step before you ask any of them. You have to exit your heightened stress state first. And the only way to do that, however silly it may sound, is to return to your body rather than keep thinking.
Take a walk. Breathe. Listen to music. Anything that pulls you out of thinking and stops you forcing a solution. It doesn't have to take long. Even 90 seconds, repeated a few times, helps. The more you practice, the more effective it becomes.
Don't skip it.
You already know this works
Think of a word stuck on the tip of your tongue. You push and push and nothing comes. Then later, doing something unrelated, it just appears. Same principle. When you stress and force an answer, the decision-making part of your brain is offline. Your job is to bring it back.
Seven questions to ask when you are stuck.
Once you've created that space, ask yourself these. Use one or use all seven. They come from people who spent their careers studying how humans actually decide, and most of them are taught in business schools.
Reversibility Test, from Jeff Bezos. Can I undo this? Move fast on reversible calls. Slow down only on the doors that lock behind you.
Pre-Mortem, from Gary Klein. It's a year out and this failed. Why? Imagining it already went wrong surfaces risks a pros and cons list never will.
Outside View, from Kahneman and Tversky. What usually happens to people who try this? Your plan feels unique. The base rate doesn't care.
Self-Distancing, from Ethan Kross. What would I tell a friend in this exact spot? You give better advice to other people. Borrow your own.
Sunk Cost Check, from Richard Thaler. Starting fresh today, would I still choose this? What you already spent is gone either way. It is not a reason.
Widen the Options, from Chip and Dan Heath. What if neither option were available? Whether-or-not decisions fail most often. Go find a third door.
10/10/10, from Suzy Welch. How will this feel in 10 minutes, 10 months, 10 years? Most panic lives in the 10 minute column.
Where to start
Start with number four. You would never let a friend agonize this long. You would ask two good questions and help them see it. Give yourself the same.
And remember the order. Calm first. Clarity follows. Neither you nor your coach can guide you to your best decision while you are still in that high stress state.
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Sources
Prefrontal cortex under stress: Amy Arnsten, Yale School of Medicine. Reversible and irreversible decisions: Jeff Bezos, Amazon shareholder letters. Pre-mortem: Gary Klein, Performing a Project Premortem, Harvard Business Review, 2007. Outside view and base rates: Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky. Self-distancing: Ethan Kross, University of Michigan. Sunk cost: Richard Thaler. Widening options: Chip and Dan Heath, Decisive. 10/10/10: Suzy Welch.
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