You make dozens, maybe even hundreds, of decisions each day without even paying attention to them. Everything from hitting the snooze button (or not) to making your bed (or not) to choosing which clothes to wear involves considering at least two options and picking one of them.

All day every day, humans make choices about what to eat, what music to listen to, which friends to spend time with, how hard to work, what chores to do, what classes to take, and when and how hard to study. Decision making is something we all do a lot, often without really thinking about it. But just HOW do we go about making decisions? Take a few minutes to think about the process you use to make decisions in your life.

• Describe your decision-making process. Do you look for the easiest or the least expensive options? Do you value exciting options over boring options? Or do you value the familiar over the unknown?
• How happy are you typically with the outcomes of your decisions?
• How do you know if a decision is good or bad? What criteria do you use to evaluate your decisions?

Write your answers to these questions in a journal or on some scrap paper. Then, compare your process with the decision-making guidelines on the next page. How alike or different are they?