While decision making on a large scale has been studied extensively - as it applies to leadership, business, policy development - we often don't apply much rigor to decisions in our individual lives. Most of us don't formally learn decision making. We pick it up indirectly by watching our elders or leaders and through our own life experience. By trial and error, by making mistakes and gradually (hopefully!) making better decisions as we mature.But what if we viewed decision making as a key life skill, approaching each decision more systematically, not reactively? Would this make the process less fraught with stress? Could we better prepare our children by delegating responsibility earlier, not hovering as much, and letting them build their decision-making muscle?An important first step is to realize that not all decisions are equal. We face a range of decisions in life. Small versus large transformative decisions differ in size, but sometimes little recurring choices made consistently - like what we eat, how active we are - can have as much long term impact as more major life decisions like who to marry, where to live or what career to follow.At times we face simple choices where no matter what we pick we won't go wrong. But at other times, decisions can be complex with high stakes and present both opportunities and consequences. Here we can preserve our mental resources by making the simpler decisions quickly and investing more time in careful, deliberate analysis of the riskier ones. Too often we spend too long on simple matters leaving us drained and unable to deal with bigger decisions.Easy decisions are easy because there is a clear best option. But when we have multiple options that may be equally good or bad with no clear criteria to help us decide, that can feel much harder. In the case of these hard choices we must, as philosopher Ruth Chang says, dig deep, develop our own criteria and select a path based on what we value most at the time.Having assessed what type of decision we are facing, the next step is to go about making a decision with as much clarity of mind as we can muster. Here are a few ideas that might help us all with that process:1. Apply an objective lens: It is easy to get swept up in emotions or get overwhelmed by information. It helps to have an objective framework to evaluate options. There are numerous tools on the Internet that might help, but I find it best to keep things simple. A pros and cons list or a hand drawn decision tree or flowchart always work well for me. The act of writing helps to slow down our thinking and apply logic to the problem at hand, with something concrete and tangible to base our decision on.2. Listen to your body: While our minds allow us to apply reason, the body provides its own wisdom. In decision making it is helpful to stay attuned to how our bodies are feeling - tense, relaxed, restless - and what that might mean in terms of the direction we want to take in a particular situation. Keeping our bodies calm can in turn help our minds feel spacious while decision making.3. Avoid overthinking: Once we've looked at the facts, applied logic and observed our physical sensations, we can arrive at a decision. At this point, it is time to move forward with our chosen path and stop overthinking. We waste so much precious time and energy overthinking decisions rather than trusting the process we followed to get there. We can never know for sure how things will turn out, but that is the nature of life and overthinking will certainly not change that fundamental fact. This is what Daniel Kahnemann, the famed behavioural economist and Nobel laureate, often calls the 'focusing illusion' where no

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