3 ideas to counter decision fatigue

May 10, 2025

Decision fatigue. A man in a business suit chooses between several suits that are the same colour.

On decision fatigue:

“Good decision making is not a trait of the person, in the sense that it’s always there. It’s a state that fluctuates.” Roy Baumeister

One late Spring in the 90s, my cousin Trish and I had exams. We had plenty of time and a great space to study. Unfortunately, there was a pool table next door. It was a tightly contested competition between the two of us. We played so much pool that I tried hiding when Mum came home unexpectedly.

Come exam time, I pulled all-nighters to cram my seriously tired and stressed brain with last-minute information. Why did I do that to myself? Why did my short-term actions not advance me in the slightest toward my goal?

Introducing decision fatigue

These are symptoms of decision fatigue, a phenomenon we experience daily that affects everything from our study habits to our food choices, business decisions, and relationships. Understanding it isn’t just about becoming a better professional or student—it’s about becoming a better human being.

I’ve spent a lot of time thinking and reading about decision fatigue. I gave up drinking over a decade ago, which was a big spur to understand it. It’s part of how I structure my day, and it’s helped me make significant life changes. However, it doesn’t mean I don’t have willpower failure, as my waist and expenditure on Bluebird Ready Salted chips will attest.

Two books that rule

Two books I recommend, and I’m going to reference in this article: The Willpower Instinct: How Self Control Works, Why It Matters, and What You Can Do To Get More of It by Kelly McGonegal, PhD and Daniel Kaheman’s Thinking, Fast and Slow.

Both directly or indirectly reference decision fatigue pioneer researcher Roy Baumeister, of whom this fantastic New York Times article was written in 2011.

The Science Behind Our Choices

Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman states that our brains operate through two distinct systems.

System 1 is our fast, instinctive, and emotional brain—which made me choose pool over studying. It’s associated with the limbic system and repetitive tasks we’re experts in (which is why you can do a lot of thinking in the car and get home without remembering driving there).

Mental muscle

System 2 is our slower, more deliberate, and logical brain—the one that knew I should be preparing for exams. It is rational and prepared to override our impulses in favour of overall gain.

System 2, responsible for willpower and conscious decision-making, requires significant mental energy. Like a muscle, it gets tired with use. This explains why, after a day of important decisions, we often make choices we regret.

Messing things up at work – a decision fatigue story

In our work practice, decision fatigue plays its way out in a way that can wreck what you’re doing and affect your business.

Does this scenario ring true for you? You start your day with a clear head, creating a creative solution to a reasonably knotty problem. By 3 p.m., after five back-to-back Teams meetings and so many SMS, Slack, and email messages that you’ve forgotten which channel you used to get any one piece of information, you’re faced with a hiring decision. Your System 2 is exhausted, and……. you find yourself making the easy choice rather than the right one.

Decision fatigue and associated phenomena affect everything we do. Late-afternoon contract discussions tend to favour the more prepared party. Budget allocations made after a day of meetings often default to last year’s numbers rather than reflecting current needs.

Knowing how it works is one thing. Mitigating it, thriving on that knowledge, that’s another.

3 simple to strategic ideas to counter decision fatigue

Start with Simplification
Time your decision-making
I Will, I Won’t, I Want

1. Start with Simplification

Given the US election is only a few days away, it might be better not to talk about a political figure. But there is a great example that is difficult to avoid. Barack Obama’s approach to decision fatigue was simple: he wore only grey or blue suits during his presidency.

“I’m trying to pare down decisions. I don’t want to make decisions about what I’m eating or wearing. Because I have too many other decisions to make.” Barack Obama

This strategy is about conserving mental energy. In our context, it might mean standardising your regular meeting formats. I’ve got six or seven pairs of the same T-shirt…. (But that may have less to do with mental energy conservation and more with a generic dress sense.)

2. Time your decision-making

Learning from my pool table days (and years of being in or managing teams), I’ve discovered when decision-making is most effective for me. I schedule essential meetings and strategic work for the morning or after lunch. I’ve become almost fanatical about time blocking, using tools like Motion AI to protect these peak decision-making hours.

It means being intentional about scheduling different types of work and it could look like this:

Morning: Strategic decisions, creative work or thinking
Afternoon: Process-driven tasks and standard operations

That’s all well and good, you might say – but what about when things don’t go to plan? Kelly McGonigal talks about studies that evidence that taking a break of even fifteen minutes, especially in a green space, can revitalise you to do that deep work you must do on a Friday afternoon.

3. I will, I won’t, I want

In The Willpower Instinct, Kelly McGonigal introduces the concept of “I will, I won’t, I want” to help individuals harness their self-control more effectively.

This framework represents three aspects of willpower:

“I will” power refers to the ability to take action towards positive habits or tasks we wish to develop
“I won’t” power relates to the ability to resist temptations and avoid negative impulses;
“I want” power involves keeping long-term goals in mind to stay motivated.

McGonigal’s framework works on the proviso that by strengthening these “mental muscles”, combined with techniques like “social contracts” (meeting someone at the gym so you commit to going) and structuring your day, you can excel at making better decisions regularly.

From Depletion to Direction

The path to better decision-making isn’t about having unlimited willpower—it’s about understanding and working with our natural limitations.

Work-life balance isn’t just a nice-to-have—it’s crucial to maintaining our decision-making capacity. Those 7 a.m. gym sessions and 6 p.m. family dinners don’t compete with our work; they support our ability to make better decisions when we’re there.

“The best decision makers are the ones who know when not to trust themselves.” Roy Baumeister

Bargaining between the present and future

Every decision we make is a trade-off between our present and future selves. The key is to make those trade-offs count. By simplifying our daily decisions like Obama, protecting our peak decision-making hours, and using knowledge and strategy by frameworks like McGonegal’s “I Will, I Won’t, and I Want”, we can make sure our decisions align with our objectives.

The next time you find yourself making a decision you might regret, whether it’s picking up the pool cue instead of the textbook, inhaling that packet of Bluebird Ready Salted chips (true story) instead of drinking water, or choosing the convenient option over the right one, you need to remember: your willpower isn’t infinite, but your capacity to manage it better is.

By Dave Hayward

Dave, the founder of Europa Creative Partners, has over twenty years of experience in sales and marketing. He reserves the right to shoehorn in his interests such as astronomy and sport into our company blog. Contact Dave for a no-obligation consultation.