Rent or buy? Prioritise career or mental health? Stay in or go out? For many, this week will have already been full of big decisions – on top of the countless other choices we have to make every single day, from the mundane to the life-changing.
Whilst on their own they may all seem like straight-forward enough decisions, research shows that with every choice we make, our ability to make good ones slowly deteriorates.
And technology is only adding to the burden, says Dr Kim Chronister, a licensed clinical psychologist, with every email, slack notification and WhatsApp message eating into our emotional bandwidth.
Dr Chronister argues that thousands of Britons are suffering from something called decision fatigue – where their ability to make rational choices is affected by too many options.
‘In modern environments filled with notifications, thousands of choices, and constant demands for responsiveness, the brain is forced into a state of continuous evaluation,’ she says.
‘Research shows that as mental resources decline, people become more impulsive, more avoidant and more emotionally reactive.
‘This is why even very intelligent and capable individuals can make poor choices later in the day that they may regret in the morning.
‘The solution is not simply better discipline, but better structure.
‘Timing, environment, and cognitive load are all ingredients to the solution for better decision making.’
However, Dr Chronister argues there are steps Britons can take to counteract their decision fatigue.
Research shows that decision-making draws from a limited pool of mental energy
What is decision fatigue?
Decision fatigue is a psychological phenomenon in which people revert to a default position because they are too mentally drained to weigh up a situation effectively.
At the centre of this is the prefrontal cortex – the part of the brain responsible for judgement, impulse control and forward planning.
When constantly bombarded with information, it simply doesn’t work as well Dr Chronnister says.
‘As decision load increases, the quality of decisions declines,’ she said.
‘In modern environments flooded with notifications, microdecisions and constant context switching, the brain becomes fatigued and functionally compromised, leading to burnout and multiple poorly regulated decisions.’
The rule of three that could turn your mornings around
Like a lot of things, Dr Chronister says the ability to make good decisions comes from practice – and creating a morning routine that eliminates as much unnecessary choice as possible is a good place to start.
This can be as simple as having the same thing for breakfast each morning, always wearing all black on a Tuesday or a non-negotiable hour of down-time when you get home from work, she says.
Limit yourself to three meaningful decision every morning, says Dr Dr Kim Chronister
This will free up space and time in the morning to make more meaningful decisions – when your brain is at its peak performance, thanks to a natural spike in cortisol.
During this window – within the first few hours of waking – Dr Chronister suggests limiting yourself to three meaningful decisions.
This routine should help you bypass what she calls ‘cognitive fragmentation’ – whereby every decision becomes difficult because your attention is torn between too many competing factors.
‘This is also where decision hygiene becomes important,’ she says.
‘Automating low-stake choices like meals and what you will wear during the day helps preserve mental bandwidth for decisions that will really impact your life.’
Why you should avoid big decisions after 4pm
Equally important, Dr Chronister says, is knowing when not to make big decisions.
And there’s studies to back the phenomenon up.
Analysis by Cambridge University found that bank loan applications processed later in the day are less likely to be approved because of decision fatigue on the part of bank workers.
Psychologists studied the decisions of 30 credit officers faced with 26,501 loan applications at a major bank over the course of a month.
They found that officers tended to reject nearly 40 per cent of applicants – suggesting the safest option was to decline an application, so that became the default when workers were fatigued.
‘Credit officers were more willing to make the difficult decision of granting a customer more lenient loan repayment terms in the morning, but by midday they showed decision fatigue and were less likely to agree to a loan restructuring request,’ Professor Simone Schnall, the study’s lead author explained.
They said that this was likely because decisions on loan requests are cognitively demanding, with errors being costly to the bank,
The team concluded that avoiding long stints of intense work – where decisions are constantly being made.- and allowing regular breaks could reduce decision fatigue.
‘Even decisions we might assume are very objective are influenced by psychological factors,’ they concluded.
And that why, according to Dr Chronister, it’s best to avoid making decisions you might regret in the evening, when you’re more likely to abandon long-term goals in favour of immediate relief.
The simple habits that protect your brain power
‘Ultimately, better decision making is not about effort alone, but energy, impulse control and emotional regulation,’ the psychologist says.
To help reset your nervous system, Dr Chronister suggests journaling in the evenings to help reduce rumination and improve clarity.
Sauna use has also been shown to help lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol, helping shift the nervous system out of fight-or-flight and into rest and restore, helping us make more deliberate, well-thought out decisions that align with our goals.
