Decision Fatigue, What Is It And How To Avoid It
Making decisions is hard work on the brain, that is why heuristics exist, which often lead to biased behaviour. Decision fatigue is no different! Read on to find out what decision fatigue means and how to avoid it affecting your decision making.
What is decision fatigue
Decision fatigue is a cognitive phenomenon where the more decisions you make, the more fatigued your brain gets, and it will start to look for short cuts to make any further decisions.
This can mean that decisions made later in the day might not be as well thought out, due to mental exhaustion.
Decision fatigue can lead to lowered willpower, which means that you will be more likely to give in to temptation, or the lack of willpower can mess with your self discipline meaning you might not work towards your goals even if you wanted to.
This phenomenon is particularly powerful among those who make a lot of trade-of decisions.
Trade-of decision would be a situation where you have limited resources and you need to choose from things you need but can’t have all of them.
This especially affects those on lower income who face decisions like being able to feed the family or pay the power bill on time.
There is also a physiological reason for decision fatigue.
Our brains need adequate supplies to function properly, and glucose levels have been linked to poor willpower and decision making.
(Glucose is sugar obtained from wide variety of foods, our brains need it for cognitive functions like thinking, memory and learning.)
So, there is actually a scientific reason for why it is often not recommended to go to the supermarket hungry. It’s not that we make poor decisions when we are hungry, it is actually because we lack willpower and give into temptations because of lack of glucose in the brain.
How to avoid it
A common tactic to avoid decision fatigue is to decrease the amount of decisions you make each day.
This could be by creating routines and habits that you stick to, eliminating little decisions out of your day.
For example having a work uniform, clothes you always wear to work. Or having similar breakfast and lunch.
Insignificant decisions, but they add to the load.
Personally I have a work uniform, same few clothes I always wear to work. I never need to think about that in the morning before work. I also have the same breakfast and the same lunch, especially on workdays.
I can definitely feel the extra load if for some reason I can’t eat what I usually do!
Another thing you can do is to schedule important decisions for the morning as decision fatigue starts to really affect us towards the end of the day.
This is shown by research done into parole hearing decisions. The timing of the hearing was determined to be the most significant factor in whether the parole was granted or not.
It is also important to keep your blood sugar levels regular, as your brain needs it to function at its best.
Regulars snacks, or in general only making big decisions after you have eaten should do the trick.
Taking some short breaks to rest mentally will also help if you have a lot of important decisions to make.
Decision fatigue in personal finance
While mental fatigue can cause us to make poor decisions, it can also cause us to avoid the decision all together.
This will often happen with financial decisions when we might just put off making the decision all together.
The decrease in willpower caused by decision fatigue can also make us spend more was we give in to temptations easier.
This can get expensive over time!
Same tips apply, make sure you’re well fed before financial decisions or shopping to curb those impulses and make your bank appointments for the morning rather than for the afternoon.
You can find more information about decision fatigue here. And you can find my posts about other heuristics and biases here.
Do you feel like you often face decision fatigue? Do you have strategies to avoid it? Share in the comments!
