4 Tips to combat decision fatigue

Life consists of choices, choices and more choices. From dawn to dusk, we make decisions every day: what am I going to wear? What am I going to eat? Do I do this now or later? Not surprisingly, as humans we sometimes like to be told "you decide. After all, we are sometimes decision weary!

Increasingly bad decisions

Ministers who lock themselves away for whole weekends to debate late into the night and so can proudly say after the weekend that they have come closer to making a decision, but there is no agreement yet. Fortunately, most organizations are shorter on substance. And that's a good thing, because research shows that people who work too long and cut too many corners make increasingly poor decisions.

But cutting a lot of knots is what many employers and executives do on a daily basis: "will you go for A or for B? If agreed I will order, what route do you want to take?" After all, as a manager and employer, you bear responsibility for the team and often for the choices made.

Fighting decision fatigue

How quickly you become decision fatigue depends on how many decisions you make, how complex they are and how much impact they have. Once you become decision fatigue, you tend to take longer to make decisions, are more likely to postpone them or make impulsive decisions. Combat that decision fatigue with these four tips:

Tip 1: Ask yourself if a decision is worth your energy

Also let the team make decisions, as often they have already made them before coming to you for confirmation. Consider the impact of a decision, and if it is low: leave it to someone else.

Tip 2: Go for set appointments and routines

Perhaps a bit of an auto-pilot story, but putting in set appointments and routines means you have less to think about what your next activity is going to be since it is already laid out in front of you.

Tip 3: Estimate your fatigue

4 p.m. and you now have to start making a decision about spending a large budget? Chances are you are already decision fatigue. Are you tired? Then postpone the decision before, when you are fit again, you regret your choice.

Tip 4: Personal knowledge makes decision making king

Do you know about yourself that you are fresh and bright on Tuesday mornings, or conversely that Friday is a day for check-off tasks? Then keep this in mind when scheduling decision moments.

Making decisions while you are very tired can cause a lot of stress afterwards. That is why it is nice that you as an employer, manager or even employee can say that you are not able to make the right decision for a while and that you would like to do so when you are fit again. To do this, you need an open organizational culture and personal leadership. Would you like to know how these factors affect the organization and employees? Then quickly visit our website and read more about it.