On Intuition — A Coin Flip Trick
Stop overthinking small choices.
I once spent twelve minutes in a grocery store, paralysed by the choice between four brands of non-alcoholic beer.
Twelve minutes!
For something that, in this particular case, tastes almost identical and costs nearly the same.
I’m working on reducing my tendency to overthink trivial choices.
When we use up our mental resources on minor decisions, we have less cognitive capacity left for the important ones — it's decision fatigue.
Where the stakes are low, we can check our intuition. Sometimes we "feel" what the right decision is — and later we convince ourselves we had all the data.
We call it:
gut feeling
intuition
a sense of knowing
It’s our brain doing the work in the background, but not always in the way we think.
Two Systems
Psychologists (Thinking, Fast and Slow) often describe decision-making using two systems:
System 1: fast & emotional — where our intuition decides
System 2: slow & logical — where we need to analyse a lot of information
Your gut feeling often comes from System 1 — it’s quick, based on past experiences or patterns you've seen before.
You might not be aware of it, but your brain can work with subtle clues that are detected unconsciously and propose quick solutions.
For bigger decisions, System 2 should be the one to focus on. It helps us to pause (pausing is a decision-making superpower), gather facts, check all the options, and resist making decisions way too fast.
So what should we do? — For smaller, low-impact decisions, trusting your intuition is fine. But when something is important it's worth picking System 2.
Asking Your Intuition
There are situations when you feel that you know exactly what to do. But sometimes even our intuition gets blurred, especially when both options are similar.
There is one trick that can help you get certainty on your System 1 response. Try this:
List the two options you're deciding between
Assign each option to one side of a coin
Flip the coin — but don't look at the result right away
Pause and notice how you feel at that moment
Reveal the coin
That feeling is System 1 in action — not because it controlled subtle muscle movement to influence the coin flip, but because you suddenly get an emotional signal:
If you feel:
disappointed, you really want the other option
pleased, this is your option
nothing, do what the coin decided, it doesn't matter to you.
This simple method helps to understand what you want, based on feedback from your emotions.
Example
I once used this method to decide whether to go to a local music festival. Not a big decision, so I asked my intuition.
I assigned "GO" to the eagle side of a Polish 2 PLN coin, and "DON'T GO" to the other side. I flipped it but didn't check the result right away.
It landed on “DON'T GO” — I felt disappointed because, deep down, I wanted it to land on “GO”, which told me all I needed to know. I didn’t follow the coin’s decision and bought the ticket.
You can try coins for:
low-stakes decisions
choices that you are overthinking
situations where your emotions might help
But please do not make your important life decisions or anything with a bigger impact on you or others. These need your System 2.
Summary
The coin flip trick is a good way to question your intuition.
Next time you're stuck between two good options, try flipping that coin — you might be surprised by your reaction.
Thanks for reading!
— Michał
Post Notes
Discover Weekly — Shoutouts
Articles that might help you explore new perspectives, which I’ve read recently:
Back on the Track • The 25-Year Gap • #1 by Stephen Gruppetta
The Art of Quiet Self-Promotion Makes You Incredible by Tim Denning
Thank you including my article 😀🙌
Thinking Fast and Slow is one of those books that really got me to rethink, if you excuse the pun, lots of things