MM: Are You Falling Prey to Decision Fatigue?

I read an article recently on why successful people wear the same thing everyday. While I tend to pull from the same part of my closet every morning, the article made a valuable point: By reducing the amount of trivial decisions made each day, successful individuals are helping to ensure their successive decisions will be good ones.

In fact, research has proven that the more decisions an individual makes in a short period of time, the more each decision decreases in quality. Psychologists refer to this phenomenon as decision fatigue. President Obama touched on this idea in an interview with Vanity Fair, “You'll see I wear only gray or blue suits. I'm trying to pare down decisions. I don't want to make decisions about what I’m eating or wearing. Because I have too many other decisions to make. You need to focus your decision-making energy. You need to routinize yourself. You can't be going through the day distracted by trivia."

Don’t run out and buy a plethora of gray and blue suits. The key takeaway here is that leaders actually make very few decisions—that’s how they stay productive. The fewer choices, the more prepared you’ll be to adequately address more significant decisions as they arise. So how do you know which decisions to make and which to discard? A simple framework.

1. If it’s low in time and low in importance, automate it! These decisions include that rent check you keep forgetting, which could be automated with electronic bill pay.
2. When you have a choice that’s low in time and high in importance—just do it. Things like dinner with a friend or making small talk with colleagues are typically worth the time and the investment.
3. When it comes to tasks that are high in time and low in importance, the goal is to find a schedule that works for you. For example, I spend the first 30 minutes each day responding to emails—it takes a bit of time, isn’t crucial, but can be done while I’m sipping my morning coffee.
4. Dealing with tasks that are high in importance and high in time require due diligence and research. These include things like buying a car, selecting a job or moving to a new city—all decisions that are worth the space in your brain, so take time with them.

This week, focus on combatting decision fatigue and assessing the importance of your choices. Happy Monday!