Taking the fatigue out of decision making

EXPOSE | Just Ignore It

“In a world where we have too many choices and too little time, the obvious thing to do is just ignore stuff.” – Seth Godin

EXPOSE | Limit Decisions, Limit Fatigue

At almost every opportunity I have to express my glee at working from home, I extol the many benefits I’ve experienced and joke about needing to buy more t-shirts because I’ve not worn them this consecutively since college.

If there is any upside to the pandemic, for me, working from home is it!

But recently, I’ve wondered if my hot-air balloon of elation over working from home might have sprung a leak.

I think, I may be thinking about things too much.

Without the office environment providing the ebb and flow of focused time on actual work, I now have nothing but focused time on actual work. By mid-afternoon, I feel as though I have no more mental energy to give.

It is similar to the feeling I used to get coming home after a day in the office and a long commute, having to make a decision on what to do for dinner–except now it happens earlier in the day! “Please, not another decision to make!”

Seth Godin’s recommendation is both simple and profound: just ignore stuff. To which I say: with pleasure.

Whether it is uninterrupted bouts of thinking or overexposing ourselves to decisions that need to be made, without the ability to ‘ignore stuff’ we run the risk of decision fatigue. We begin to look for a way to make quick, safe decisions that don’t always end up being the best decision.

The more decisions made throughout the day, the harder each decision becomes for us. Eventually, the brain looks for shortcuts to circumvent decision fatigue, leading to poor decision-making.
The Decision Lab, “Why do we make worse decisions at the end of the day?”

When you consider that decision fatigue leading to poor decision making can affect anyone, in any position, you begin to see the magnitude of its consequences. Having trouble deciding on what to make for dinner is nothing compared to those people in a position who’s decisions directly impact our health, safety and welfare.

You know, like presidents, parents, and fighter pilots.

Setting that aside for a moment, probably the greater implication is how decision fatigue may affect our ability to hear from God.

With all that energy spent on untangling, puzzle-solving, and maze-running, we couldn’t bear to hear about anything more we might need to do.

Fortunately, we have what is revealed through Scripture to reign in our random and conflicting thoughts and feelings. But our reception of, and response to, God’s leading is going to require a quieted mind and heart.

We’ve talked in the past about having a good decision analysis and developing a heuristic to better ensure we make the right decisions. But how can we expect to keeping making the right decision when there are so many to make? We become fatigued by all the decisions we need, or think we need, to make, so how can we limit them, in addition to continually make the best decisions possible?

EXECUTE | Less Fatigue, Better Decisions

In even what may have been said in jest, Seth points out two factors working against us: too many choices, too little time. Not to mention the understated solution as to what we should do about it: just ignore some stuff.

Reduce or eliminate unimportant decisions

We can reduce the number of decisions we make by eliminating some of the unimportant decisions, even if they don’t require a lot of our mental energy to make those decisions.

Most of the decisions we make are inherently unimportant: pants or shorts, walk or bike, read or retire. It isn’t that we don’t make important decisions, we just make so many unimportant ones. The act of decision making, even when small, contributes to decision fatigue.
Erin Wildermuth, The Science of Decision Fatigue

In addition to reducing or eliminating smaller, (relatively) unimportant decisions, The Decision Lab suggests creating routines or habits and that by doing so, we’ll preserve mental energy. Having less to think about, and making necessary, but less important decisions more routine, will directly reduce decision fatigue.

Time your important decisions

I’ve spoken before about how incredible taking advantage of mornings can be, and it turns out that they are ripe for making the more important decisions we need to make.

Besides using up our mental energy making unimportant decisions, something else that Erin’s article “The Science of Decision Fatigue” implies is that we need to consider the time of day when making important decisions. She cites a study that found that business analysts became less accurate as the day wore on. That is where fatigue sets in, and we begin to lean on safer options–which, reduces the likelihood of innovative thinking let alone being able to make the right decision.

Feeding the brain

I saved this for last, not because it necessarily is the most important, but that it needs to be said because it is a good reminder. Our mental health is impacted by our physical health.

Managing and maintaining blood sugar levels can be done by snacking throughout the day, or only making decisions after eating, which can help prevent decision fatigue.
The Decision Lab, “Why do we make worse decisions at the end of the day?”

This is something you may need to explore further with your doctor, but at the very least, evaluating our sleep/rest cycle and how we’re feeding our brains throughout the day are going to play a significant role in avoiding fatigue.

By reducing the number of decisions we need to make, timing our thinking around what decisions we do need to make, and feeding our ability to do that means we will have the mental energy for the more important thinking that is required to accomplish what is most important.