Decision Fatigue—The Motivation Killer

What’s Decision Fatigue?

Fatigue is when an extreme sense of tiredness sets in, especially after an extended session of physical labour. That’s when the muscles in your body are telling you that they are exhausted and out of energy. But what about decision fatigue? That’s the mental version of regular fatigue. It affects you after you’ve made many decisions in a single day. This is because every single decision you make comes with a mental price. When you are tired of making decisions, that’s decision fatigue. Apparently, it’s for this reason that people like Obama, Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs are infamous for having only one style of clothing in their wardrobe: it reduces the need for them to think of what to wear, thus eliminating one potential contributive cause of decision fatigue.

Ego Depletion?

Decision fatigue is actually part of what social psychologist Roy Baumeister calls “ego depletion.” This is significant because it means decision fatigue can also come about due to negative effects on a person’s willpower, such as lack of sleep or an unfortunate incident.

What’s Bad About It?

Okay, so you might be thinking, “It’s just being tired of making decisions, what can go wrong?” A lot, in fact, can go wrong. Very wrong. See, the problem with decision fatigue isn’t just that you’ll be too tired of making decisions. The biggest problem is when you’re too tired of making good decisions. There’s almost no difference from making decisions while you’re drunk. This is why many scammers and conmen would attempt to flood their victims with information and emotional overload, leading to otherwise rational people losing hundreds and thousands in cash to these manipulators.

How Do We Handle This?

Here are four ways to deal with decision fatigue:

1. Simplify your daily decisions

As mentioned before, some people limit their wardrobe choices in order to not have to think too much about what to wear: Obama only wore grey or blue suits throughout his eight years as POTUS, and Steve Jobs wore nothing but black turtlenecks and blue jeans. Setting a meal plan takes out the questions of “what/where to eat?” and “how much do I have left?” or “can I afford this?”

2. Set your priorities

If you’ve been given multiple tasks to handle, make sure the tasks that require more mental work are given higher priority over tasks that are more menial, or schedule your tasks so that you will not be using up too much of your brain before important meetings. Make sure all the big decisions are made first before anything so that you won’t have to risk making poor choices for the heavy stuff.

3. Have a good rest

Your mental state is more affected by your physical state than you might think. Thus, it is very important that you keep both your mind and body healthy by having enough sleep, and maybe even take short breaks in the afternoon. In fact, science has shown that just taking a 20-minute nap boosts productivity. After all, our biology is wired to nap in the afternoon. Just don’t nap for too long though, because once you enter into the 30-minute mark, you’ll be entering the regular sleep cycle, and waking up just after you entered that state will leave you worse off than if you never napped in the first place.

4. Sugar, honey, honey

Your brain uses sugar as a fuel because it needs a lot of energy to keep your body running, and if you are constantly making decisions, it needs fuel for churning out your thoughts too. Honey in moderation is a healthy alternative to sugary drinks or snacks. Coffee would only keep you feeling awake, but does not provide the necessary fuel to your brain to make the right decisions, so a sugar-deprived brain on coffee is very, very dangerous.

In conclusion, you should always bear in mind the very dangerous and negative effects of decision fatigue, and make sure to avoid that at all costs—although telling you to keep this in mind seems to be oxymoronic. Keep your mind healthy as well as your body, and you’ll be a lot less likely to make decisions you’ll come to regret.