Decision-making is part of our daily life. The process can be as small as choosing what to have for breakfast, or as heavy as deciding to relocate. Either way, it’s important that we are able to consistently make good decisions to avoid unwanted or unintentional outcomes. Decision-making fatigue can lead to brain fog, impair clear thinking, induce mental exhaustion, and leave individuals feeling overwhelmed.
What is Decision-Making Fatigue?
Decision-making fatigue refers to the mental exhaustion we experience after making too many decisions. Studies have shown that our presence of mind, or “active self”, is a limited resource that is expended by making decisions. As such, we often underestimate the demands of a decision making process. To respond intentionally and constructively to an issue or question, we must have great awareness, presence of mind, and cognition.
There can be a lot of pressure involved in a decision-making process. Pressure can come from many things such as; engaging others, resource limitations, expectations (from yourself and others), time constraints, potential risk, and more. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, we have seen decisions become increasingly complex with more factors to consider, growing sensitivities to HR topics, and engaging teams that are isolated and working in various locations.
Maintaining the presence of mind and awareness required for good decision-making during this can become exhausting! The cognition involved can lead to mental exhaustion, leaving us feeling tired, depleted, and possibly reactive. These feelings describe what we like to call decision-making fatigue.
Who Does Decision Fatigue Affect?
Decision fatigue can have an impact on people from all walks of life. It can take a toll on anyone who regularly faces a sheer number of choices, particularly professionals who are constantly making decisions throughout their day. This demographic can often have high executive functioning responsibilities making them vulnerable to the impact of excessive decision making.
Leaders such as CEOs and Executives need to consistently make good decisions, sometimes under enormous amounts of pressure. On top of this, they are expected to make, communicate, and deliver on these decisions with appropriate decorum. This pressure can deplete their mental energy, affecting their ability to respond effectively and make critical decisions.
What Makes Decision-Making Fatigue So Bad?
As organisations and businesses operate, they must evolve and be dynamic to survive. With constant shifts and changes, their dependence on their leaders and high-level decision-makers remains high.
There are two common ways people typically deal with the pressure of decision-making when they are fatigued. The first is to make the decision reactively. While this quickly relieves the pressure, important stakeholders, possible risks or unintended outcomes can be overlooked. The second way of coping is to delay the decision. This might relieve some of the immediate pressure, but the stress of a decision can continue to eat away at us, leading to decision avoidance.
Studies have shown that there are links between decision-making fatigue and burnout. With this in mind, it comes as no surprise that decision-making fatigue affects health and wellbeing, often leading to emotional exhaustion. When we are exhausted, our capacity to make decisions is impaired, often resulting in poor choices.
Is Decision Fatigue The Same as Burnout?
Decision fatigue and burnout are related but distinct challenges. Decision fatigue occurs when a person faces too many choices, leading to mental fatigue, brain fog, and decision avoidance, which makes focusing on important decisions difficult. It drains mental energy and can result in stress. Burnout, however, is emotional exhaustion from chronic stress, reducing a person’s ability to function and often causing physical symptoms. While decision fatigue can be managed through self-care and routines like meal planning and adequate sleep, burnout requires a more comprehensive approach.
How Do You Fight Decision Making Fatigue?
To manage decision fatigue, research shows that establishing the right routines can prevent Executives or CEOs from feeling overwhelmed. For example, Steve Jobs famously simplified his daily routine to focus on the most important decisions. Managing decision fatigue can decrease anxiety, improve self-control, and support better executive functioning, ensuring you avoid making bad decisions when it matters most.
There are a number of strategies being discussed by doctors for managing decision fatigue that can ease the load of decision-making.
Some of these tips include:
Streamline your choices
- Take any opportunities to prepare for decisions. For example, write a shopping list to avoid unnecessary or impulsive decisions while at the store.
Delegate decisions where possible
- If you don’t need to be the one to make a decision, or you’re feeling the weight of decision fatigue, don’t be afraid to ask for help from someone. This can be a great trust-building exercise too!
Make big decisions in the morning (and quick ones in the afternoon)
- Studies have shown that people make more accurate decisions for important things in the morning. Conversely, the same researchers found that people make better split-second decisions in the afternoon.
Stop second-guessing yourself
- Re-hashing decisions in your mind over and over can make you even more tired than making the decision in the first place. Make sure to let go of unnecessary perfectionism.
- As the saying goes “If you stress too much about something before it happens, you basically put yourself through it twice”
Develop daily routines
- A routine can take the guess-work out of less important tasks like choosing what to eat for breakfast, choosing what to wear, or choosing your route to work. This can help you conserve energy for the decisions that really matter.
Nurture your health and wellbeing
- Health and wellbeing is one of the biggest assets you can have on your side when it comes to decision-making. To consistently make good and informed decisions, you need to be resilient and keep your head clear. Prioritising good sleep, a balanced diet and regular exercise are great strategies to build your resilience to the demands of decision making.
Good health and wellbeing not only supports good temperament and lower anxiety, but it also fosters the presence of mind and flourishing resilience that is needed to consistently make good decisions.
Get Support With Ford Health
There are many proactive ways to manage your health and wellbeing while building habits that boost resilience, especially in areas like decision-making. If you’re looking to support yourself and your team in these efforts, reach out to our team at Ford Health today. We’re here to help with personalised health and lifestyle coaching tailored to your needs.
To hear more about health and wellbeing in the workplace, follow us on LinkedIn.
