Decision Fatigue: The Impact of Decision-Making in Business
- 13 minutes ago
- 3 min read
Something important to recognise in business is that mental exhaustion isn’t always caused by long hours. It’s a contributor, but sometimes it’s caused by multiple things piling on top of each other before anyone, or themselves, really notice.
In my previous blog, I spoke about context switching and the impact it can have on mental capacity; this time, I want to look at decision-making, or what’s more widely known now as decision fatigue.
What is decision fatigue?
To put it as simply as possible, decision fatigue is what happens when you’ve spent so much mental energy making choices that even the smallest decisions start to feel overwhelming.
When we think about decision-making in business terms, we always focus on the big decisions that have an impact, because we feel that impact in the moment and the stress of it, like hiring someone, launching something new, all and any major changes and so on.
But small decisions drain us, too, and more often than not, it’s the hundreds of small decisions we make every day that have the greatest impact on our mental energy. Every small decision also takes a little bit of mental energy, and that energy is, unfortunately for us, finite.
So by the end of the day, it’s no surprise that even tiny choices like what to have for dinner feel so overwhelming you end up getting a takeaway, and then it takes half an hour just to choose which restaurant to go with.
How does decision fatigue show up?
The thing about decision fatigue is that it’s subtle and shows up in small ways that can be easily dismissed as stress or tiredness.
Things like:
Procrastinating over simple decisions.
Feeling overwhelmed by tasks that would normally feel manageable.
Struggling to prioritise what needs your attention first.
Becoming more reactive or making snap decisions.
Feeling mentally drained long before the end of the day.
The most difficult part is that these feelings creep up gradually, which is why we don’t really notice them until we’re feeling the worst and things are most difficult.
An important thing to note about context switching and decision fatigue
It’s also worth remembering that decision fatigue, alongside context switching, isn’t solely a symptom of burnout or exhaustion; it can be a contributing factor.
Constantly jumping between tasks while making hundreds of decisions throughout the day puts a huge demand on our mental capacity.
Over time, that pressure builds, making it harder to focus or prioritise or even think clearly.
Recognising what’s actually draining you, is as in most cases of things that impact your mental wellbeing, the first step to managing it.
The research rabbit hole
While researching this blog, I came across a review published in Frontiers that analysed 23 different studies on decision fatigue.
Most of the research focused on healthcare professionals; however, it also included studies examining other industries and businesses.
It identified 10 factors associated with decision fatigue, grouped into individual, organisational, and external courses, alongside four primary effects and seven secondary effects.
Although there wasn’t much that pertained to business, the ideas were very relevant. If you're interested in the science behind decision fatigue, it's definitely worth looking at the research yourself. You can read it here.
Overall...
I think we often view time as our most valuable business resource, and it is one of them, but mental energy matters just as much.
Protecting it is every bit as important as protecting your calendar. The more unnecessary decisions we can remove from our day, the more capacity we have for the decisions that really need our attention.
The goal isn’t to make less important decisions, but it is to stop wasting mental energy on the ones that don’t need you in the first place.
If you would like to relieve yourself of decisions, or seek general support in your business, I'm always happy to help, so please do get in touch or book a free consultation with me.
About Katie, Executive Assistant and Founder of Katie Rodwell Remote Executive Assistance
Meet Katie! Your executive assistant and behind-the-scenes support for your small business. She’s also your personal cheerleader because we all need an extra clap to keep things moving.
And she’ll be the first to remind you to celebrate yourself, too.
If you're looking to outsource tasks such as admin, social media, calendar management, email management, and more, book a free consultation below.
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