How to Make Better Decisions Under Pressure

Описание: Learn how to tell real deadlines from manufactured urgency and make better decisions when the clock is ticking.

Under time pressure, your brain doesn't just think worse. A 2025 study in Psychophysiology found that your confidence goes UP while your accuracy goes DOWN. You feel more certain while getting it more wrong.

This episode gives you:

→ The 5 Tests for Manufactured Urgency (Source, Consequence, History, Reversibility, Separation)
→ The Stakes-Reversibility Grid — based on Jeff Bezos's one-way/two-way door framework, expanded into four quadrants
→ Why the sneakiest bad decisions are the ones that feel unimportant
→ How to push back on artificial deadlines without looking indecisive
→ A real negotiation story where the "deadline" evaporated with one word

⏱️ CHAPTERS: (draft — adjust after final edit)

00:00 - "We need an answer by end of day"
00:51 - What time pressure actually does to your brain
01:35 - The confidence-accuracy inversion (2025 research)
02:52 - Real vs. manufactured urgency
04:40 - Five Tests for Manufactured Urgency
07:45 - Cancer clarity — when fake urgency falls away
08:52 - When "I need more time" is the problem
10:15 - The Stakes-Reversibility Grid
12:38 - The negotiation story
14:15 - Your two-test challenge
14:47 - What's next: deciding when everyone disagrees

📚 SOURCES & REFERENCES:
• Psychophysiology (2025) - Time pressure increases confidence while decreasing accuracy
• Jeff Bezos (2015) - Amazon shareholder letter on one-way/two-way door decisions
More details on the sources and references are in the show notes for this episode on philmckinney.com

📋 THINKING 101 EPISODE GUIDE:
Ep 1: Why Thinking Skills Matter Now More Than Ever -    • Why Thinking Skills Matter Now More than Ever  
Ep 2: How to Improve Your Logical Reasoning Skills -    • How to Improve Your Logical Reasoning Skills  
Ep 3: How to Master Causal Thinking -    • How to Master Causal Thinking  
Ep 4: How to Think Using Analogies -    • How to Think Using Analogies  
Ep 5: How To Master Thinking In Bets -    • How To Master Thinking In Bets  
Ep 6: Second-Order Thinking -    • Second-Order Thinking: How to Stop Your De...  
Ep 7: Numerical Thinking -    • Numerical Thinking: How to Find the Truth ...  
Ep 8: Mental Models — Your Thinking Toolkit -    • Mental Models — Your Thinking Toolkit (Thi...  
Ep 9: Mindjacking — How to Catch the Surrender -    • Mindjacking — When Your Opinions Aren't Yours  
Ep 10: How to Stop Overthinking Your Decisions -   • How to Stop Overthinking Your Decisions  
Ep 11: How to Beat Decision Fatigue -    • How to Beat Decision Fatigue  
Ep 12: How to Make Better Decisions Under Pressure ← YOU ARE HERE

🎯 New to the series? Start with Episode 1 or jump in anywhere — each episode stands alone. Watch the full playlist:    • THINKING 101 -  The Essential Skills They ...  

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📖 ABOUT PHIL McKINNEY:
Phil McKinney is the Innovation Decision Expert — former CTO of Hewlett-Packard and CEO of CableLabs, with decades of experience making billion-dollar innovation decisions. He teaches the frameworks that actually work in the face of uncertainty.

🛠️ INNOVATION TOOLS: https://innovation.tools

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