Combating Decision Fatigue
Hi All,
This week we wanted to share our thoughts with you on decision fatigue - and specifically some strategies to combat it. Decision fatigue is the idea that as the number of decisions you have to make increases, the quality of your decision making diminishes.
We share five strategies to utilize alone, or together, to help you combat decisions fatigue.
Prioritize
Schedule
Research
Automate
Acknowledge low stakes
Prioritize and schedule work in tandem. Making a big decision at 8:00 p.m. after a long day of decision making is not the best idea. Instead give yourself permission to sleep on it and make it your priority the next morning when you are rested and refreshed. You don’t need to make every decision right now. Prioritize the decisions that demand a more immediate answer, and give yourself the permission to schedule the others to a later date.
When you are prioritizing and scheduling your decision making, you also want to take a minute to ask yourself whether you have enough information to make this decision. Sometimes we struggle and lose focus because we need more information to make an educated decision. If you don’t have enough information then, it’s not a decision you should be trying to make right now. Instead, focus on what additional information you need. Deciding to find out more information is a decision.
Our next strategy is to evaluate whether there is anything you can automate - this works especially well for smaller decisions. This doesn’t mean you will stop thinking about your decisions, it just means you already have a default answer.
Our final strategy is to acknowledge when the stakes are low, which means that sometimes good enough is good enough and not worth thinking about anymore. Whether you choose to wear a black suit or a gray suit - either choice is good enough. Are not sure what to make for dinner? Pull something our of your freezer - it will be just fine. Allow good enough to be good enough and save your energy for those other decisions.
We loved working on this episode because it served as a great reminder to us to utilize these strategies in our own lives. Please share your thoughts with us and email us - we would love to hear from you!
Have a great day!
Haley & Amy
Photo by Firmbee.com on Unsplash
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