Combating Decision Fatigue -- Meet the Moment, July 31, 2022

​At the start of the school year, Academic Leaders make dozens, if not hundreds, of decisions. Making decisions is like lifting weights--you build your strength by practicing regularly over time, but if you try to do too much at once, you run out of power. 

​When we polled Academic Leaders about what kind of issues they work on as school gets started, 96% of our respondents said they solve problems that are both urgent and important:  high stakes decisions that consume time and energy. If we go back to our weight-lifting comparison, it’s like you’re lifting more weight and doing more reps, and that means you’re tiring out faster than ever. 

If we take away the simile, you’re stuck in what social psychologists call decision fatigue. Human brains expend a lot of energy making decisions, and as they run out of energy, it becomes harder to make decisions well. In other words, there are physiological and cognitive explanations for why it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the number of problems you have to solve. Researchers who study this phenomenon have documented concrete approaches to managing and minimizing decision fatigue. Here are three of your most effective strategies:

• If you can’t reduce decisions, limit your choices. The decisions that Academic Leaders face at the start of the school year are a fact of your work, and often, they can’t be delegated. When that happens, try to pare down the possible solutions. It’s tempting to believe that having more options will lead to a better decision, but that’s just not true. (Listen to this podcast from Freakonomics about what Trader Joe’s can teach us about choice and decision making.)  Give yourself a limited amount of time to brainstorm solutions, or choose to stick to a few trusted sources when you need to research a topic.  When you have fewer options, you deplete less of your mental energy choosing between them.
  
• Front-load your day with the most important decisions.  As humans use up their energy over the course of the day, they get worse at making decisions. Most decisions in schools--even the most urgent ones--don’t have to be made right away. Your calendar can help you manage the process so that you make your choices as efficiently as possible. Build a short “finalize decisions” block into your schedule at the start of the day. In the afternoon, when problems arrive, don’t try to solve them immediately. Instead, gather the evidence you need, keeping a running list of the decisions that need to be made, and leave it front and center on your desk when you pack up in the evening. The next morning, start the day by tackling those thorny issues, and you’ll solve them better and faster than you would have the day before.
  
• Give yourself what you need to do your job well. You need to have sufficient energy for your brain to make the decisions your work requires. What it takes to provide and renew that energy is both obvious, and frustratingly out of reach at times:  sleep, nutritious food, hydration, and physical activity. You’ll be able to get more done well when you meet your brain’s needs. If you’re in a tight spot, there’s a quick fix to help:  glucose can partially or fully reverse the effects of decision fatigue for a short time. Snack time isn’t just for the kids.

At the start of the year, Academic Leaders need to have every tool available to make your work as manageable and visionary as possible. If you can separate out the skill of decision-making from the decisions themselves, they become easier to approach--and you deserve to have things a little easier.