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 can consistently make good decisions, lest we end up with outcomes that we didn’t need nor want.
What is Decision-Making Fatigue?
Decision-making demands more than what we might see on the surface. 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.
Studies have shown that our presence of mind, or “active self”, is a limited resource that is expended by making decisions. 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. Maintaining the presence of mind and awareness demanded by good decision-making can become exhausting! The cognition involved can be a huge mental strain, leaving us feeling tired, depleted, and possibly reactive. These feelings describe what we like to call decision-making fatigue.
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 significantly high.
There are two common ways people typically deal with the pressure of decision-making when they are fatigued. The first is to reactively make the decision. While this quickly relieves the pressure, stakeholders 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.
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 and consequently, our capacity to make decisions.
What Can We Do To Prevent Decision-Making Fatigue?
There are a number of strategies being discussed by doctors that can ease the load of decision-making:
- Streamline your choices
- Take any opportunities to prepare for decisions. Eg: 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 their side when it comes to decision-making. To consistently make good and informed decisions, you need to be resilient and keep you head clear. Good sleep, a balanced diet, and regular exercise might be some of the first strategies to come to mind.
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.
There are many ways to proactively manage your health and wellbeing, and build habits that help you become more resilient with things like decision-making. If you think you or you colleagues could benefit from guidance or coaching with these things, get in touch with us at Ford Health!
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