In this article you will learn what decision fatigue is and how it affects you and 7 decision-making techniques.
Our success is totally tied to the decisions we make, so we are obligated to make the best decisions we can. But how do we guarantee this?
Also read: Tony Robbins’ secret to success.
It is clear that we do not know the future. The variables that we take into consideration can change and what seemed like a good decision turns out to be our condemnation.
However, we can reduce the risk of making a bad decision, simply avoiding as much as possible the “decision fatigue”.
What is decision fatigue?
It is the term coined by Roy Baumeister, professor and specialist in social psychology, and refers to the decrease in the quality of decisions made For someone, after having taken many others.
An example of this is reflected in the study conducted by Shai Danzinger, Jonathan Levav and Liora Avnaim-Pesso.
The aim of the study was to determine which factors most influenced judges to grant prisoners from an Israeli jail conditional release.
After analyzing more than 1,000 cases, they found that the most “obvious” factors in reaching a verdict, such as the crime committed, the length of the sentence, or the race of the prisoner; they were not the most decisive: it was the time of day in which the judge made the decision!
If a prisoner went to trial late in the day, he was less likely to get parole.
By this time of day, the judges had made more decisions. And as we all know, it is much easier to make a decision that does not change the situation, in this case a “no”.
We are all vulnerable to this, so we must focus on creating habits that facilitate our decision making and keep us from “decision fatigue”.
Find here 7 techniques to make decisions.
Techniques for making the right decisions.
1. Make the most important decisions in the morning.
It is less likely that in the morning hours you have been faced with many decisions; so your level of fatigue will be much lower and therefore the objectivity of your judgment will be greater.
2. For less urgent decisions, choose the simplest option.
There are decisions that will not define the course of your success. Some banal or simply of less importance.
Those decisions are not worth giving them all of your concentration and time.
3. For daily decisions, plan them the night before.
Every day we must decide what we are going to eat, how we are going to dress, etc. How about we go ahead and make those decisions with more time in advance?
Being in a hurry and tired, we take the easy path, and as a consequence, such important areas of our lives as food are affected.
4. Don’t make decisions on an empty stomach.
It sounds like a cliché, but science supports this idea. When we are hungry, our body secretes a hormone called ghrelin; which affects our impulsiveness and therefore our decision making.
5. Limit your options.
If you have fewer decisions to make, you can spend more time on each one.
This is one of the decision-making techniques that Mark Zuckerberg uses. He dresses the same every day to avoid having to think about it.
You don’t have to do the same, but limiting your decisions will surely optimize your time and concentration.
6. Look for a “good enough” and not a “perfect”
We have the idea that perfection is the best, the problem is that it is an ambiguous term.
What is the perfect relationship like, what is the perfect worker like?…The answers are many!
The same thing can happen with your activities and that search for “perfection” easily turns into procrastination.
It aims to achieve very good results. If you realize over time that it must be even better, you can pick up the activity and take it to the next level.
Also read: How to make perfectionism something beneficial for you.
7. Do not decide in places with many distractions.
To make better decisions you must be focused, so a place with distractions is not suitable.
For example, when you enter a supermarket, the ideal thing is that you know exactly what you are going to buy. Otherwise, you will face many decisions that will distract you from what is truly important.
This is one of the 85 ways to save money at home that exist.
Conclusion.
These decision-making techniques they will allow you to avoid falling into decision fatigue and can greatly simplify your life.
I hope they will be of great help to you 🙂
And remember, if you are really interested in creating your own business and want to find more information on this subject, buy our book “How to create a company while working: Discover how to manage your time, manage your money and motivate yourself while creating a company and working for another” , where you will find all the information you need to found your own company, without having to leave your job.
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