What should I do if I don't have time to chill a cookie dough (it's a high-fat recipe) overnight according to the recipe? Is the freezer wise?

Here's another idea: after making the dough, press/flatten it into a disk (or disks) about twice as thick as you'll eventually roll it out to. It will chill really fast, unlike a ball of dough. It will also be much easier to roll out once chilled, since you'll be starting with dough that's mostly rolled out already.

Most cookies are pretty high fat- if it's not much more than 1 fat to 2 flour by volume, chances are good you could skip it entirely- certainly 6 hours is more than adequate.

Thank you both! I ended up doing the ice-water bath in the fridge--I was able to leave it for ~7 hours, and they turned out perfect.

I would stick the dough in ziplock bag removing all of the air, place in an ice water bath and stick the whole thing in the fridge.

Is it similar to this recipe by Alice Medrich? If so, I have chilled it for a few hours and they are still delicious and didn't spread. They were better the next day after sitting for 24 hours, but the difference wasn't gigantic.

http://www.food.com/recipe/worlds-best-butter-cookies-50684