Sometimes it’s very hard to make a decision. And requires a lot of mental energy.
What clothes to pick, where to eat, what to eat, what music to listen to, what to do in our free time, what film to watch, what book to read, etc, all demand our brains to exert energy on a daily basis.
Do you know that humans have a limited amount of mental energy to devote to making choices? It sounds unbelievable, I know, but it’s true. We have a limited amount of energy during the day, and we spend it on small, trivial things until we have none left. This is neither fiction nor magic. It’s true. Science proved it.
Wikipedia says: “In decision-making and psychology, decision fatigue refers to the deteriorating quality of decisions made by an individual after a long session of decision-making.”
It is said that Barack Obama, Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg, to name a few, used to reduce their everyday clothing down to one or two outfits in order to limit the number of decisions they made in a day. More energy left for the important ones!
Decision fatigue can influence irrational impulse purchases at supermarkets.
Sales and marketing are taking advantage of this! Remember that candies and snacks are placed close to market cash registers, to take advantage of shoppers’ decision fatigue at the end of their shopping! Please remember this. Decision fatigue can influence irrational impulse purchases at supermarkets.
Making decisions takes willpower. And willpower is a limited resource.
Ever wondered why powerful people with important jobs and big responsibilities have lousy family lives?
Baumeister and Vohs suggested that the disastrous failure of men in high office to control impulses in their private lives may at times be attributed to decision fatigue stemming from the burden of day-to-day decision-making. They are too tired to make good decisions. And it’s not even their fault. There is simply no energy left for them.
How to avoid decision fatigue?
Moran Cerf, a neuroscientist at Northwestern University, suggests that we should choose our friends carefully and let them make the small decisions for us. Not fair, I know. Totally unfriendly!
Anyway, he says that when going to eat, let your friend pick the restaurant. If it’s a close and good friend, he’ll choose a restaurant he knows you’ll enjoy, so, don’t worry. The scientist has also a personal policy to always pick the second menu item on the list of specials when he’s out to eat, for just that reason (see here why)
Not so picky this scientist, it seems…
Also read: Where is the power hidden?
I believe that being aware of the fact that we have to make a decision is enough. If we realize in time that we must chose something, we have to do it quickly.
(Personally I lose way to much time in picking the clothes in the morning. It shouldn’t be that important. I’ll have to come up with a strategy! After all everybody knows me and all my clothes.)
Moran Cerf also says that people let their emotions turn a rational choice into an irrational one (based on past emotions) and they use social cues, even subconsciously, to make choices they’d otherwise avoid. So then why not use our friends in making small decisions, which will otherwise drain our own mental energy? As I said, not a very friendly gesture.
However, knowing that making decisions requires energy makes us realize that important decisions must be taken in the mornings. And that we should take everything easier in order to maximize happiness and minimize stress. We should build a life that requires fewer decisions.
Are you tired of making decisions, too? Do you thing you can minimize the decisions to make on a daily basis?
