Let’s discover five things we can do to make better decisions and avoid decision fatigue
Did you hear about decision fatigue? I came across this formulation a long time ago, and I always asked myself if it was true. Do we get fatigued because we make too many decisions? It’s not like our mental power would run out. It is not like we could not go on to make decisions, or does it?
Yet, there are so many easy examples that come to mind which illustrate this point.
Think about:
- shopping without buying
- flights or vacations not booked because there were too many choices
- renint a hous is a terrible proces (usually)
- coupon expired
That’s called the paradox of choice. The more options we have, the more difficult it becomes to choose and be happy about it. We fear making the wrong choice and are not satisfied with whatever choice we make.
Perhaps we can think alongside Daniel Kahneman’s ideas from his book “Think Fast and Slow” one of whihc is: we do many things in an automated. We spend almost all of our daily lives engaged in System 1 (Thinking Fast). We engage System 2 (Thinking Slow) only if we encounter something unexpected or make a conscious effort.
To avoid decision fatigue, we need to have good habits and systems. I think this fits perfectly into this idea of dealing with most of our time and tasks and aspirations through habits and systems. Not relying on our willpower, not on intention, not on a decision, may it be conscious decisions or decisions we make unconsciously, even worse. Habits and Systems take away a lot of unhealthy mindlessness. Of the chaos of our brains and keep our inner procrastinators at bay.
What can we do?
We automate things in our lives so that we do not need to make decisions about those things. (for example, A LIST GOOD HABITS). We spend most of our time, System 1, in a well prepared, organised system of intentional habits that lead us in the direction and future we want to rather than the one we might end up in by chance.
Five things we can do to make better decisions and avoid decision fatigue
- make better decisions in the morning or after a break
- delegate decision
- make fewer decisions
- developed a decision-making process
- decide together with other people
Peter Demuth 