{"id":30022,"date":"2015-05-18T04:45:37","date_gmt":"2015-05-18T09:45:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/michaelhyatt.com\/?p=30022"},"modified":"2015-05-18T04:45:37","modified_gmt":"2015-05-18T09:45:37","slug":"decision-fatigue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fullfocus.co\/decision-fatigue\/","title":{"rendered":"When You\u2019re Just Too Tired to Make the Right Call"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When 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?<\/p>\n\n<p>My Twitter stream was filled last week with teachers and professors grading papers\u2014and by that I mean teachers and professors complaining about grading papers.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s hard work, and I don\u2019t 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\u2019 decisions. It\u2019s true for all of us.<!--more--><\/p>\n<h3>Too Depleted to Decide<\/h3>\n<p>When our physical energy slumps, so does the quality of our decisions. But here\u2019s what we sometimes forget: Making decisions actually drains our physical energy. It becomes a vicious cycle.<\/p>\n\t\t<aside class=\"tweetable tweetalign_center\" style=\"width:100%\">\n\t\t\t<blockquote>\n\t\t\t\tWhen our physical energy slumps, so does the quality of our decisions.<cite>Michael Hyatt<\/cite>\n\t\t\t<\/blockquote>\t\t\t<ul class=\"actions\">\n\t\t\t\t<li class=\"icon-arrow\"><a class=\"icon-twitter\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?source=tweetbutton&text=When%20our%20physical%20energy%20slumps%2C%20so%20does%20the%20quality%20of%20our%20decisions.%20https%3A%2F%2Ffullfocus.co%2F%3Fp%3D30022&via=michaelhyatt\" title=\"Share Quote on Twitter\" target=\"_blank\">Tweet<span> Quote<\/span><\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/aside>\n<p><em>New York Times<\/em> science writer John Tierney <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2011\/08\/21\/magazine\/do-you-suffer-from-decision-fatigue.html?_r=2&ref=general&src=me&pagewanted=all\">reported<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n<p>When researchers examined the data, 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.<\/p>\n<p>Decision fatigue is what happens when we\u2019re too drained to do our best thinking and make the best calls. And it doesn\u2019t 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\u2019ll experience decision fatigue.<\/p>\n<h3>4 Ways to Beat Decision Fatigue<\/h3>\n<p>Think about the consequences of our decisions, and it\u2019s clear this something we can\u2019t afford to miss. Thankfully, there are ways we can beat it before it beats us. Here are four things that work for me.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Don\u2019t think.<\/strong> Seriously. It\u2019s not the kind of decisions that drain us. It\u2019s the number, whether it\u2019s a decision about what to eat, where to go, when to leave, how to get there, and so on.\n<p>I\u2019ve written before about the power of my <a href=\"http:\/\/michaelhyatt.com\/productive-day.html\">morning<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/michaelhyatt.com\/nighttime-ritual.html\">evening routines<\/a>. The truth is that any decisions we can routinize, automate, or turn into <a href=\"http:\/\/michaelhyatt.com\/make-a-new-habit-stick.html\">habits<\/a> can help us conserve energy and stay sharp.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Get rest.<\/strong> It\u2019s crucial to get the <a href=\"http:\/\/michaelhyatt.com\/sleep-longer-to-achieve-more.html\">sleep<\/a> we need each night and even helpful to <a href=\"http:\/\/michaelhyatt.com\/extra-energy-at-work.html\">nap<\/a> during the work day.\n<p>It\u2019s also helpful to look at how we structure our days and weeks. When we get bogged down with <a href=\"http:\/\/michaelhyatt.com\/terrible-tyranny-of-tiny-tasks.html\">tiny tasks<\/a> early in the day, our productivity suffers. I try to lump what busy work I can\u2019t eliminate or delegate into a couple of days each week so I can use the remainder for rest and focusing on big projects\u2014the two most important things for moving the needle in my business.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><strong>Hit pause.<\/strong> Powering through the weariness is sometimes necessary, but do you really want to make calls that will affect your month or year when you\u2019re depleted?<\/p>\n<p>Right after an intense period on the business, my daughter Megan and I were working on our yearly budget. It was early in the afternoon but we were starting to make rash and impulsive decisions. Megan raised a flag. \u201cWe\u2019re just to tired to make good decisions,\u201d she said. And she was right. We put the budget on hold and came back to it later when we were recharged.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p><strong>Eat well and exercise.<\/strong> Our time may be fixed, but our energy is not. Since decision fatigue is just another form of fatigue, we can also combat it by healthy eating and <a href=\"http:\/\/michaelhyatt.com\/tag\/exercise\">working out<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Exercise used to be the last thing I thought about. Now it\u2019s one of the first. Not only does it recharge my body, it also allows my mind to shift out of decider mode. It frees me up to randomly sort out ideas, imagine, and dream.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h3>One Decision We Don't Have to Make<\/h3>\n<p>There are some very real tendencies working against us. As high-achievers, we\u2019re prone to cram our schedules with a number of decisions guaranteed to wear us out. Add to that our tendency to think we\u2019re responsible for making <em>every decision<\/em> and pretty soon we\u2019re played out and don\u2019t even realize it.<\/p>\n\t\t<aside class=\"tweetable tweetalign_center\" style=\"width:100%\">\n\t\t\t<blockquote>\n\t\t\t\tAny decisions we can routinize or automate helps us conserve energy and stay sharp.<cite>Michael Hyatt<\/cite>\n\t\t\t<\/blockquote>\t\t\t<ul class=\"actions\">\n\t\t\t\t<li class=\"icon-arrow\"><a class=\"icon-twitter\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?source=tweetbutton&text=Any%20decisions%20we%20can%20routinize%20or%20automate%20helps%20us%20conserve%20energy%20and%20stay%20sharp.%20https%3A%2F%2Ffullfocus.co%2F%3Fp%3D30022&via=michaelhyatt\" title=\"Share Quote on Twitter\" target=\"_blank\">Tweet<span> Quote<\/span><\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/aside>\n<p>We can\u2019t always pick optimal conditions, but we can be aware when situations are suboptimal and plan accordingly. Letting decision fatigue beat us is one decision we don\u2019t have to make.<\/p>\n<div class=\"reminder\">What\u2019s your best strategy for battling decision fatigue?<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When 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\u2014and by that I mean teachers and professors complaining about grading papers. It\u2019s hard work, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":30023,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[43,267,24,76,147,105],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Decision Fatigue: When You&#039;re Just too Tired to Make the Right Call - Michael Hyatt<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When our physical energy slumps, so does the quality of our decisions. 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