We Live in a Data-Driven World — Here's a Case For Listening to Your Gut Instead Honing and trusting one's intuition can lead to quicker, more effective decision-making. Here's how to harness the power of listening to your gut to make the best choices.

Fresh or frozen? That was the million dollar question facing restaurateur Danny Meyer following a searing New York Times review. The local rag had torn into Meyer's slowly growing Shake Shack empire — then about 30 restaurants — for serving frozen french fries. Pride wounded, Meyer quickly switched to fresh fries without thoroughly researching the alternative. If he had, he may have discovered that fresh fries have to be fried three separate times, and the taste and quality are inconsistent. A year later, the burger chain converted back to frozen.

The takeaway? Meyer should have listened to his gut. Despite the review, high-quality frozen fries were working for customers. You know the adage: If it's not broken, don't fix it. And second, Meyer could have dug more into the data and researched the proposed business change. He may have realized that it wasn't worth switching to fresh — that his intuition had been right all along. It's a prime example of why leaders should pay heed to data and their gut.

In recent years, there's been a big push toward data-driven decision-making. Author and Wharton professor Adam Grant told the Washington Post:

"One of my big goals professionally is to get more leaders to stop acting on intuition and experience — and instead be data-driven."

But in my 18 years as CEO of Jotform, I've realized that it's critical to tune into both. The key is knowing when to dig into the data and when to lean more into intuition. Her are some strategies that have worked for me when it comes to making big decisions.

Related: 7 Reasons to Trust Your Gut When Starting a Business

Identify the scope of your data

For entrepreneurs, efficiency is paramount for making decisions and not getting derailed by analysis paralysis. Sometimes, that means rapidly processing massive amounts of data and determining the best path forward. Other times, that means recognizing that little-to-no data exists and relying almost wholly on intuition.

Take early-stage startup investors. Researchers from Wharton and The Paul Merage School of Business looked at what experienced angel investors assess when deciding whether to invest in an early-stage venture. As the researchers explained, early-stage investors have limited tangible data and often can't assess market growth possibilities. Instead, these investors rely on their gut and whether they feel chemistry with the aspiring entrepreneur. In short, intuition trumps data.

Of course, the analogy isn't perfect. Angel investors tend to have more disposable capital than most of us would ever consider risking. But the logic holds. As a business owner, I sometimes face decisions that aren't contingent on tangible data. For example, if a potential hire will thrive in our distinct company culture. I can look at past hires and how they fared. But certain aspects of human relationships are beyond the scope of crunchable data. In those situations, I rely on my intuition.

Identifying the scope of the relevant data helps me make decisions efficiently and confidently.

Consider your expertise

If you're occasionally overcome by self-doubt at the office, take heart: You're not alone. Studies have found that adults doubt themselves on average six times per day and that people have the biggest self-doubts in relation to their work life.

When faced with big decisions at work, it's normal to second-guess your intuition. But rather than ruminating, try focusing on an objective factor: your experience. Writing for Harvard Business Review, Connson Chou Locke explains that intuition is only helpful in certain situations, and the most important condition is expertise. Locke writes that it takes about 10 years to become an expert in any domain, and during those years, repetition and feedback are essential.

Returning to the angel investor example, one of the reasons that they can so confidently trust their intuition is that most of them have extensive technology-specific investment experience. As CEO of my company for nearly two decades, I can lean on my expertise in many aspects of the business. But when it comes to new frontiers, like emerging technologies, I might seek more data or tap expert colleagues — all the more reason to start immersing myself in artificial intelligence right away.

Related: Trust Your Gut: Go Beyond Number Crunching and Use Intuition Instead

Apply mental models — until you can't

I've written before about the benefits of mental models for effective decision-making. Each mental model is like a lens for interpreting the world. Our brains process enormous amounts of data daily . Mental models distill information into a form we can organize and understand. To give a quick example: let's say you're considering a job change and not sure if you'll be more satisfied with the new gig. One mental model you can apply is called "regret minimization" — a tool for reframing your thinking beyond the immediate future and instead focusing on what will be most beneficial down the road. Will you regret this decision in 5, 10, 20 years? It's a new way of thinking about a choice.

That said, there may be instances when analyzing the situation using a mental model won't cut it. As Harvard Business Review explains, if you're trying to differentiate yourself from competitors who have followed those mental models, gut instinct may be the way to go. For example, if competitors have used probabilistic thinking to make a certain decision, you may want to tune into intuition, especially in situations not dictated by rational factors — matters of taste, aesthetics, virality. Your gut feeling, informed by your unique experience and perspective, may be the only way to break away from the pack.

Pare down your daily decisions

Finally, one of the most important strategies for making better, more efficient decisions is paring down the number of daily choices. You've probably heard of decision fatigue: the mental exhaustion we suffer when faced with too many decisions. It's why entrepreneurs pick daily uniforms, à la Steve Jobs, or eat the same lunch every day. A growing body of research shows that the more choices you make, the worse the quality of your decisions.

One way to eliminate a healthy portion of your daily choices is by automating your busywork — rote, manual tasks that tend to swallow up precious time. To do so, conduct an audit of your daily tasks, identify the workflows — a series of interconnected steps that produce a result — and search for tools to automate as many steps as possible. I recommend checking out sites like G2 to identify the best tools out there.

When you automate as many steps and tasks as possible, you're left with more bandwidth to deliberate on remaining decisions. You'll have more time to analyze the data and consider your options, including your gut feelings about them.