Making Better Decisions Despite Stress

Here’s an easy, actionable idea that will help you make better decisions for career growth or any part of your life: ensure you have spent time doing some kind of hobby or past-time that uses your brain in a way your work doesn’t.

Before you sigh and add that to your “I should do that” list, take a second and hear me out: it’s easier than you think to benefit from this activity, and the benefits to your decision-making are profound.

Making clear decisions about your career, life, and the things you want to explore requires clarity and brain space. This means *not* having steam coming out of one side of your brain after overworking it, and it means *not* feeling like Yosemite Sam. Your amygdala has to be a little bit chilled out.

Interestingly, research showed that even 10 minutes of leisure activity that engages your brain achieves both of these effects. Engaging a different part of your brain also really helps increase your ability to have clarity, create new ideas, and innovate.

Research shows that “hobbies” or “leisure activities” don’t have to have a lot of parameters around them to see this benefit. Your activity doesn’t even have to be physical (although the benefits of physical activity can stack onto the other effects mentioned if you want extra credit). The activity doesn’t have to be expensive or something entirely new. The activity just has to be something you choose to do and has to interest you in a way you aren’t normally engaged.

So, if you’re making a decision (job offer, career direction, new ideas for your clinic), make sure you have filled your prescription for a little hobby time within the past 24 hours.

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