Why Indecisiveness Makes You Smarter

Why Indecisiveness Makes You Smarter

Indecisive? That might just be an asset when it comes to making better decisions. Plus, open the BBC Worklife Toolbox.?

Fork in the road

How indecision can ultimately drive better choices

Indecisiveness is a common trait. While some people come to very quick judgements, others struggle to weigh up the options – and may try to avoid making a choice at all.?The inability to make a choice can even be linked to problems like anxiety.

Yet recent research suggests that indecision can also have an upside – it protects us from common cognitive errors like confirmation bias, so that when a person does finally come to a judgement, it is generally wiser than those who jumped to a conclusion too quickly. The trick is to learn when to wait, and when to break through the inertia while it’s holding you back.

Read more from David Robson on the surprising silver lining of indecisiveness.

Waving at the camera

The Toolbox: Learning how to excel in the modern workplace

In a forever-changed world of work, people need to know about the biggest emerging opportunities and challenges, and how to approach them. That’s why BBC Worklife has designed our Toolbox series, which helps equip workers to thrive.

We’ve broken down topics such as adaptability, soft skills and growth mindset, putting them in context and explaining how to leverage them to succeed. This month, we’ve already looked at:

  • Reverse mentorship: How young workers are helping their bosses wrap their heads around emerging workplace trends and issues
  • Non-verbal communication: How our unspoken signals have changed in a digital work environment

Read more from our Toolbox series.

?Plus, the latest from BBC Business:

Get more every day on BBC Worklife?and?BBC Business. We’ll return next week with another edition.

Meredith Turits , Editor, BBC Worklife

Images: Getty Images?

Shandi Leung

Product & Service Design | Experience Design | Open to Collaboration

2 年

“A good rule of thumb in decision making is, whenever you cannot decide what you should do, choose the action that represents a change, rather than continuing the status quo." Change may give a feeling of fear and insecurity sometimes, but once we made a change, we will be grateful about our decision because it can be surprisingly rewarding. It is better regret doing something than not doing something.

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M.Ange N.

Finances & Budget Dept

2 年

Excellent, i like this. Indecisiveness can be a good thing in some situations. I alwayz say it.

John LeBlanc

Experienced Information Technology Specialist

2 年

so true.

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Federico Nicolás Villagrán Brandes

I've successfully passed the ecpe exam

2 年

Indecisiveness is not a good trait to have

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Sreekumar Menon

Getting IT done responsibly and sustainably

2 年

To glorify indecisiveness is just plain wrong. If one’s role in any sphere of life is taking decisions then they must be decisive. That does not mean taking decisions quickly but taking one that allows for the outcome to be realised or not as the case maybe. There is always a price paid for indecisiveness.

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