What is time pressure narrows thinking?

Time pressure narrows thinking is a concept in personal epistemology: Artificial urgency causes you to abandon your thinking process.

Example: Your manager drops by at 4:45 PM and says, 'I need your recommendation on the vendor selection before I leave at five.' You have been evaluating three vendors for two weeks. You have a spreadsheet with fourteen criteria. But now you have fifteen minutes, so you skip the spreadsheet and go with your gut — which happens to be whichever vendor's name you heard most recently. The two weeks of careful analysis collapse into a snap judgment because the clock replaced your process. The decision was not made under time pressure. It was made without your thinking process, while time pressure provided the alibi.

This concept is part of Phase 37 (Autonomy Under Pressure) in the How to Think curriculum, which builds the epistemic infrastructure for autonomy under pressure.