Resolving Decision Fatigue
How is it that by the time you start your commute you are already exhausted? Check the schedule. Pick an outfit. Make breakfast. Barack Obama, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jim Harbaugh all have a simple hack to avoid early morning decisions. They simply wear the same thing every day in order to not spend any time thinking about clothing options. They are all trying to avoid decision fatigue.
What is decision fatigue?
Decision fatigue refers to the mental and emotional fatigue surrounding a person’s ability to make decisions. As the brain becomes fatigued, decision making abilities and emotional regulation can be negatively impacted. It is estimated a person makes 35,000 decisions over the course of a day! That can easily create a lot of stress.
What is the impact of decision fatigue?
This is a serious enough issue that the American Medical Association created a weekly series of articles entitled “What Doctors Wish Patients Knew” with one of the topics being decision fatigue. Further, decision fatigue has been proven to impact decision making. In a study of judges making decisions about parole, judges made favorable decisions 65% of the time at the beginning of the day or right after a lunch break. At the end of the day or right before lunch, favorable decisions approached zero. “Decision fatigue is what it sounds like: the more decisions we have to make, the more cognitive resources we use and the more mentally and emotionally exhausted we are by the end of the day.” Dr. MacLean of the AMA adds, “The more choices you have to make, the more it can wear on your brain, and it may cause your brain to look for shortcuts,” she added, noting that “there are four main symptoms: procrastination, impulsivity, avoidance and indecision.” This has certainly become a bigger issue since the pandemic. Another factor is the amount of information a person processes on a daily basis. In 2011 it was estimated that the amount of information the average person received in a day was the equivalent of 174 newspapers.
Short-term solutions
The AMA has several recommendations, including streamlining choices like we saw with the former president’s clothing choices. Delegate decisions to subordinates to decrease the number of decisions you need to make. Develop routines that automate tasks and decrease choices. Make more decisions in the morning when fatigue is less likely to impact you.
A longer term solution
A quick adjustment is helpful; how can you prevent decision fatigue from rearing its ugly head? As the Forbes article suggested, weighing decisions against your values reduces the difficulty of the decision. This in turn increases your confidence, which also reduces the temptation to second guess your decision.
To use your values effectively, you must have clarity about your values. Values that don’t guide behavior or are not clearly defined will add fatigue when used as a filter to make decisions. Take the time to review your values. Ensuring values are consistent behaviors will increase the opportunity for you to create healthy filters for making decisions and avoid decision fatigue.
How has decision fatigue impacted you? What recommendations do you have for anyone struggling with decision fatigue? Please reply in the comments section.
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