Set a “good enough” bar before you search

Decide your criteria first, then take the first option that clears them.

Why it works

Without a pre-set threshold, every new option becomes a fresh comparison, so the search never ends and each alternative seeds doubt about the last. Defining "good enough" before looking — Simon’s satisficing — gives the search a stopping rule, which both saves effort and prevents the comparison spiral that erodes satisfaction.

How to do it

1. Before browsing, write the criteria an option must meet to be acceptable.
2. Search only until one option clears every criterion.
3. Take it and stop looking — the bar, not the field, decides.

Evidence

Grounded in Simon’s bounded-rationality account of satisficing and in research linking a maximizing orientation to lower satisfaction. Setting a stopping rule directly targets the endless-comparison mechanism that the maximizing research implicates. Simon’s foundational papers formalize satisficing as choosing the first option that clears an aspiration threshold, giving the "good enough" bar its precise theoretical footing. (observational)

The maximizing-dissatisfaction link is correlational and the scale has been debated; effects are real but modest, not deterministic.

Sources

• Simon (1956), bounded rationality and satisficing
• Schwartz et al. (2002), Maximization Scale — maximizers report less satisfaction and more regret, J. Personality & Social Psychology
• Simon, H. A. (1955). A Behavioral Model of Rational Choice. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 69(1), 99-118.
• Simon, H. A. (1956). Rational choice and the structure of the environment. Psychological Review, 63(2), 129-138.
• Schwartz, B., Ward, A., Monterosso, J., Lyubomirsky, S., White, K., & Lehman, D. R. (2002). Maximizing versus satisficing: Happiness is a matter of choice. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83(5), 1178-1197.

Common mistake

Setting the criteria after you start looking, so each new option silently raises the bar and the search never closes.