If I Have to Make ONE MORE DECISION!?!
Ever get to a certain point each day in which you simply don’t care? Whatever…as long as you DON’T have to make ONE more decision…
Official phrase for this is: “Decision Fatigue.”
Unofficial phrases may include: “I don’t give a shit,” “Don’t bother me with that,” “Don’t care, you decide,” or “Do whatever you want.”
Regardless of what you call it, it happens to all of us…daily. Seriously. You just thought you (or your boss…or spouse) simply got crankier as the day progressed? Perhaps you gave them the benefit of the doubt thinking “He or she has had a tough or stressful day.” Or perhaps you are like the rest of us who unabashedly thought “Wow, no need to be an a**hole, I simply asked you a question. Man, it wasn’t even a hard question.”
Difficulty of the question is almost irrelevant at a certain point. It simply comes down to the fact that this (typically charitable) individual has hit their daily decision-making limit. Your question is not difficult, unimportant, or irrelevant…just coming too late in the day!
So now that we have diagnosed this daily challenge and you feel guilty for harshly judging others, let’s look at ways to live with this knowledge.
If there are no ways to avoid decision fatigue, how do you maximize the focused, quality decision making time you have each day? I’m sure there are some clever methods such as “sleeping till noon” or “delay the decision”…but here are a few helpful tips Weisbeck Consulting has found more effective:
“Fix” the simple options. Make sure you don’t “waste” the precious, limited number of daily decisions on dumb, little things (i.e., what you are to wear, eat, drive, the path to work, etc.). Now…I could feel the eyes of the women reading this blog roll from here haha. Brilliant people, such as Steve Jobs, Mr. Rogers, and Mother Teresa wore the same thing every day. It was one less decision they had to make. Okay, okay fashion police. You could also use a “low quality” decision the night before to decide what to wear the next day.
Routine is a good thing. Not only because it keeps you disciplined and can be great for healthy habits, but because (like the previous tip) it can function as a “fixing” of simple options…you don’t even think about a, b, or c…because it is simply part of your routine.
Make important decisions early in the day. Have your most important meetings in the morning while you are still sharp and on your A-game. Save the less important and less difficult decisions to the afternoon…like what beers to drink at happy hour, whether you want to golf 9 or 18, and whether to check your emails for the 95th time today.
Prioritize major decisions and define their timelines. Take the time to identify and prioritize the decisions that need to be examined more seriously. Additionally, define when this decision must be made. By defining the timeline of the decision, you can plan the research, discussions, and exploration in such a way that the decision-making process is not stressful. Stressful decisions can quickly bring on decision fatigue!
Bottom line: you only have so many decisions each day (and therefore each week)…use them wisely. What is the best course of action? I will let you decide 😊
