How To Make Fewer (and Better!) Decisions Every Day
“You can’t stop making decisions, but you can stop intentionally making bad ones.”
I re-read this fascinating article about decision fatigue recently, and I decided—relatively quickly, early in the day, and on a full stomach—to share it with you this week.
The article points out that any decision, whether you are deciding what to eat for breakfast or whether or not to invade Rome, can be distilled into what social psychologists call the Rubicon Model of Action Phases, which involves four stages.
Address: What problem are we solving?
Plan: How do we propose to solve it?
Execute: How are we implementing this solution?
Evaluate: Is it working?
Somewhere in between planning and executing, you “cross the Rubicon,” an expression history buffs will remember as the moment Caesar took to the waters of the river that separated his life as a retired governor from his rise to dictator-for-life and what would ultimately become the imperial era of Rome. The rest of us know this as “the point of no return.”
Surprisingly, the most exhausting of these phases isn’t the planning or the executing; it is the act of actually making the decision. One reason it can be so taxing is because today’s modern decision-makers aren’t making choices in a vacuum. We don’t just have three decisions to make on a daily basis, we have 100—and the more choices we have to make, the less thought we put into each one as it comes up, regardless of importance.
Yikes.
Willpower (and the good decision-making that comes with it) is a limited resource. It’s why supermarkets have bad-for-you goodies at the cash register. It’s why your teenage daughter waits to ask you for money until you get home from work. And it’s why your last meeting of the day is often least productive and why your similarly beleaguered spouse is all too happy for you to plan date night.
You only have so much self-control, willpower, and good-decision-making energy to go around, so the only real choice is whether or not to conserve it. If you want to consistently make good decisions throughout the day, you have to train your brain to “cross the Rubicon” more efficiently—or you may find yourself up a different creek without a paddle.
Onward,
Bill
“The best decision makers are the ones who know when not to trust themselves,” says Roy F. Baumeister, social psychologist. On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your ability to make a critical decision right now?
Ask yourself that same question throughout the day to help evaluate when you may need a break, a boost, or to bow out.
7 Habits That Conserve Your Daily Willpower:
Avoid scheduling back-to-back meetings without a break.
Stay away from decision-drainers like all-you-can-eat buffets, car or computer shopping —unless that’s all you plan to do that day.
Set appointments for workouts (with a friend, not the news!)
Prioritize your mornings for important tasks, meetings, etc. You may not think you’re a “morning person” but your willpower is.
Get plenty of rest (7.5 hours of quality sleep!)
Make important decisions in the beginning of the day, after a good meal.
Throughout the day, charge your phone in a different room so you can recharge your brain without unnecessary distractions (and unnecessary decisions).
