When You’re Just Too Tired
to Make the Right Call
4 WAYS TO BEAT DECISION FATIGUE BEFORE IT BEATS YOU
W
hen do you make your best decisions, at the end of a day crammed
with meetings and calls? Or early in the
morning after a day of rest?
My Twitter stream was filled last week
with teachers and professors grading
papers — and by that I mean teachers
and professors complaining about grading
papers.
It’s hard work, and I don’t mean
to slight anyone, but I feel sorry for the
students whose papers were last in the
stack. Making call after call is bound to
affect the quality of their teachers’ decisions. It’s true for all of us.
2015 Issue 2 | GearedUp
Too Depleted to Decide
When our physical energy slumps,
so does the quality of our decisions. But
here’s what we sometimes forget: Making
decisions actually drains our physical
energy. It becomes a vicious cycle.
New York Times science writer John
Tierney reported on a study of parole board
decisions. Prisoners whose cases were first
up had a far greater chance of early release
than cases heard later in the day.
When researchers examined the data,
32
they found the merits of the individual
case were not the main factor in
prisoners going free or staying
put. The only variable was how
tired the board members were
after analyzing cases all day.
Decision fatigue is
what happens when
we’re too drained to do
our best thinking and
make the best calls.
And it doesn’t just
affect professors and
parole boards. If you push
it too far as an executive,
an entrepreneur, a parent,
a pastor, anything at all,
you’ll experience decision
fatigue.
by Michael Hyatt