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Every day, entrepreneurs make thousands of decisions. Small, trivial choices – Fries or Salad – And those with high stakes, such as conditions for additional funding. Sooner or later, you cannot summon the mental energy to choose. Faced with a Netflix queue or dinner options, you sigh and tell your partner, “Whatever you want.” Do you accept selflessly? Not really.
Abstaining from choice makes us look reckless. When decision fatigue shows up in our personal relationships, it is seen as carelessness. In peers, it indicates poor judgment, indecisiveness, or worse, incompetence.
Decision fatigue There is energy depletion that leads to impaired decision making, as choices require brain power for multivariate analysis (If I do x, y will happen). Projecting outcomes, even unconsciously, comes with biological costs. The brain looks for shortcuts and becomes reckless when tired — impulse buys and daily fast-food orders are proof of this. The fastest shortcut is to do nothing. We opt out.
“Whatever” or “it’s up to you” are disconnected answers that suggest a choice, and the person asking isn’t even important. The burden of making the choice for us falls on our partners or co-founders. To help you be more present in your personal and professional relationships, here are some tips to prevent decision fatigue.
Related: Decision fatigue destroys your focus, motivation and drive
Practice decision batching
High stakes decisions Lowering our energy levels, but also to a greater extent. Let’s imagine that making a big choice like hiring for a senior executive role requires 15 units of brain power. By comparison, 15 small decisions – Medium or large, hot or snowy, here or to go – Also requires 15 units of brain power. Numerous small choices are also boring. It helps to plan for them.
Decision-batching might include preparing the weekly meal on a Sunday afternoon or putting together a capsule wardrobe and dressing each day’s outfit the night before. Think of Steve Jobs and his famous uniform: black turtleneck, blue jeans and sneakers.
Simple clothes and Food options Release leftover energy so you can be more present for the small choices that affect others. Support can prevent fights over Tuesday dinner.
Treat big decisions like tasks
When consequences are involved, treat the decision like a task. Build Time in your calendar As you would for a meeting or appointment. We tend to make hasty decisions when we try to fit them in between other responsibilities.
I’m shopping for a new CMS, which isn’t earth-shattering, but it’s an expense. I set aside time for research, short-listing and onboarding to make sure I didn’t do these things sporadically and get overwhelmed.
If the choice has more significant consequences, set aside for earlier in the day when you are most alert. one A small study Published in Journal Intelligence found that chess players make slower, more accurate decisions in the morning and faster, less accurate decisions in the afternoon.
This trick can also be applied to household decisions like family vacations. Set aside time for each family member to choose an activity or excursion. Make planning a big Sunday breakfast its own activity. I have two boys, and I consider teenage boredom to be a high-stakes consequence of long commutes for mood and mobility.
Related: Decision fatigue is real. Here’s how to remove it.
Know your entrepreneurial mindset
In my experience, entrepreneurs face one of two decision challenges: perfectionism or impulse. Both can lead to decision fatigue.
The perfectionist brain doesn’t like ambiguity and wants to make the “right” choice. In situations where there is no clear win, perfectionists feel incomplete and stressed. But mulling over the same choice again and again, without any new information, is just as boring as making a choice.
An impulsive brain, on the other hand, will make any choice to relieve the stress of unexpected decisions. This can lead to more mistakes, so the same decisions will need to be revisited. It helps to know what type of judge you are. Perfectionists may remind themselves that opportunities may be lost if one procrastinates too long. Impulsive pickers should sleep on it.
Unlike physical fatigue, which is obvious, decision fatigue is sneaky. We can’t get tired when our judgment is faulty, and we can’t consider how our lack of energy is affecting others. It is best to form good habits, lest we appear careless or aloof. make a decision is a skill. If we fail to choose, we do not practice, and we do not improve.