A good-enough decision is one that meets your minimum requirements and is taken immediately, instead of searching for the best possible option. Decide what the choice must achieve and what it must not risk before you look at options, then take the first option that clears that bar, because the time spent searching is itself a cost in a crisis.
Satisficing means accepting the first option that meets a bar set in advance, not searching for the best one.
Maximising Is The Wrong Goal When Time Is Scarce
The economist and psychologist Herbert Simon called this approach satisficing: accepting the first option that meets your criteria, instead of maximising by comparing every option. It is the right approach when time, information or attention is limited, which describes every crisis.
The risk is not in satisficing but in setting a poor bar. A bar set while panicking can be too low (anything that gets me out of here) or too high (only a perfect answer).
Method: Bar First, Option Second
Step 1: Write the must-haves Two or three. For choosing a place to shelter tonight: out of the wind, dry ground, not under dead branches. These are the minimums.
Step 2: Write the must-not-haves One or two hard exclusions. For example: not near a flood channel.
Step 3: Take the first option that clears both Do not keep looking for a better one. Check it against the bar once and go.
Step 4: Note what you gave up Say aloud what is not ideal about it: “Not the driest spot, but fine for tonight.” You will be able to improve it later.
Failure Modes
- Bar too low — you accept something that fails an obvious need. Cure: the must-have list, written down.
- Bar silently rising — each option reveals something better, and you keep going. Cure: the first one that clears the bar is final.
- Applying it to irreversible choices — for decisions that cannot be undone, such as a medical treatment that cannot be reversed, slow down and get help if you can.
Common Mistakes
- Confusing “good enough” with careless — the bar is real and specific.
- Reopening a settled choice — unless something new happens, leave it.
What’s Next
- Learn next: Time-Boxing Choices — pairing the bar with a deadline
- Combine with: Three-Option Rule — a routine to find candidates quickly