Get Everything Done

Mark Forster's "standing out" process for picking tasks uses the power of what is commonly called the "adaptive unconscious", which is "a series of mental processes that is able to affect judgement and decision making, but is out of reach of the conscious mind," as Wikipedia defines it (I know Wikipedia can be iffy most of the time but at first blush this definition sounds adequate). I want to read more about this, I was hoping other people can point me to more sources.

Personally I first learn of this term years ago when I read Malcolm Gladwell's "Blink,"

http://www.amazon.com/Blink-Power-Thinking-Without-ebook/dp/B000PAAH3K

I do not have the copy right now but I do remember him saying that the adaptive unconscious both has advantages and disadvantages, and thus it would be good to determine when to use our "first blush" impressions on things and when to use our conscious minds.

I then recently came across this online article

http://www.healthguidance.org/entry/16989/1/The-Adaptive-Unconscious--Is-Your-First-Decision-Your-Best-One.html

which gave such a general rule:

"As a rule, going with your snap decision is often a good alternative should you lack the ability or knowledge to make a reasoned decision (as long as the outcome is low-risk), and might be more useful in scenarios that are very emotional and personal in nature – such as speed dating e.g. In situations however where it is possible to weigh up evidence and calculate results, this should generally be the preferred decision making option. Though if the latter only serves to back up the former, then this is your best case scenario."

So any more sources, insights, etc?

Upon researching some more, I came upon Daniel Kahneman 's "Thinking, Fast and Slow."

http://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Fast-Slow-Daniel-Kahneman-ebook/dp/B00555X8OA/

Just bought the ebook and about to start reading it. From cursory reading around it seems very interesting, and even helped me think about the heuristics in my current TM.