Don’t let decision fatigue force you make wrong decisions
Wouldn’t life be much easier if we had fewer decisions to make?
You might be knowing the fact that Mark Zuckerberg wears the same clothes to work everyday. Explaining why he does that, here is what the billionaire had to say, “I really want to clear my life to make it so that I have to make as few decisions as possible about anything except how to best serve this community.”
The same holds true for various other influential people like Steve Jobs, Barack Obama and many others. So, does it really work? Looking at the success these people have had in their respective fields it surely does. And, that’s not the only proof.
If the results of one of the researches carried out by the University of Columbia are to be believed, then we all suffer from decision fatigue. During the research more than 1000 court rulings were considered to check the impact of judge’s mental state while making the final decision. What came as a major surprise was the fact that as the day went on, the probability of favorable ruling dropped by quite a large extent.
This is not just one odd study, there are plenty of others as well. So, the big question that arises here is what can we do to not let decision fatigue plague our decision making abilities?
Here are a few simple steps that have worked for me, and I’d like to share them with you in the hope that they will work for you as well. Let’s take a look at those steps -
Use the first half of your day for important decisions
In a normal working day human mind is most productive for an approximate three hours. It is generally believed that these are first three hours of the day, owing to the fact that the mind is well-rested and rejuvenated after a good night’s sleep.
To make sure that decision fatigue does not seep in, you need to make use of these three hours for the most important decisions. Whether it is team meetings, client calls or project planning — anything that involves decision making — make sure to cover it during the initial hours at workplace.
Give your brain the rest it deserves
Our brain functions better when it is well-rested. This is the reason that frequents breaks become so important for people involved in frequent decision making. In fact, feelings like hunger can lead to a negative impact on your ability to think and make the right decision. This is because low blood glucose levels get the mind to loose focus. Whereas a full stomach supplements the required glucose levels and gets your mind to focus on important stuff.
So, don’t think of breaks as a wastage of time during crunch situations. In the end these breaks will prove to be the savior as they will help not just get your focus back and make the right decisions but at the same time be more productive as well.
Keep the choices to bare minimum
By keeping the choices to bare minimum you can actually do your mind a BIG favor. I mentioned about how powerful people like Steve Jobs, Barack Obama and Mark Zuckerberg employ methods to avoid making choices at less important things by choosing to wear the same outfit everyday at work. Why can’t we follow the same?
For instance, rather than shuffling through the entire wardrobe simply pick up the first outfit that catches the eye. Or, rather than getting confused about what to eat in the breakfast, why not plan your meals and follow them religiously? To avoid having to make all the decisions on your own, at work for the team, you can use a tool like ProofHub. In the tool, you can easily create roles for each team member and let them know about their responsibility and make them more accountable.
Remember, by giving your brain limited choices you are making it easy for it to make the right decision. Understanding this is no rocket-science!
As easy as it can be — come to think of it, these points make a lot of sense. In fact, most of us are aware of the fact that these things will definitely keep us mentally sane and empower us to make the right decisions. Still, how many of us do actually follow them in life?
As they say, following the simplest things in life is the most complex task. And, so is this.
“Want to become better at managing things? Stop relying on emails and start using ProofHub.”
Originally published at LinkedIn
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Sandeep Kashyap is the Founder of ProofHub — a leading project management and collaboration software. A passionate leader, Sandeep is always on the lookout for innovative ideas about filling the communication gap between groups, teams and companies. He is also a featured writer on LinkedIn and a contributing author at YourStory. You can connect with him on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
Also follow our company page @ProofHub to get the recent updates about our tool, published articles, motivational quotes & presentations.
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