The perils of decision fatigue-and how to Presidentially overcome them
15 Feb 2022
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How is it that during both his terms, between being a husband and father, President Barack Obama also achieved the goal of being the first ever black man to become the President of the United States. How did he get it all done, you ask? Well at least one of his techniques are small, but glaringly effective at making his very important job better. He imposes simplicity and no fuss decision -making on what he wears on a day-to-day basis.
to-day basis.
When he spoke to Vanity Fair's Michael Lewis in 2012, Obama said, “You’ll see I wear only gray or blue suits… I’m trying to pare down my decisions. I don’t want to make decisions about what I’m eating or wearing. Because I have too many other decisions to make.”
The same technique has been seen on the likes of the brainiac behind Apple Inc's global domination, Steve Jobs, who was famous for his black turtleneck and Levis 501 jeans. The experts and students at the science of psychology call this: avoiding decision fatigue.
So what exactly is decision fatigue? Is it the same for a busy stay-at-home mom, as it is for the leader of a nation? Decision fatigue means that if you spend a prolonged period of time on making a lot of decisions then, the longer you do it, the worse your decisions get. This could range from tasks like which outfit to wear for the day to implementing certain policies that could impact more than 300 million people. The phenomenon works under the belief that the rate of human decision-making for a period of time is limited, and that like a spring, will not return to its original shape after being stretched for too long.
According to Psychologist Barry Shwartz, in addition to feeling decision-exhausted, prolonged and frequent decision-making could also lead to overall dissatisfaction with the result of your decisions. In the fast-paced world of pandemic era decisions and online shopping, the decision muscle may as well be in a coma now due to fatigue. A psychologist who studies decision fatigue, Roy F. Baumeister commented, "Making decisions uses the very same willpower that you use to say no to doughnuts, drugs, or illicit sex".
In this world full of unlimited choices and social media ads making sure you know that there might always be something better out there, how do you decrease the effects of decision fatigue? Psychology says that having automation and simplification are key. For instance, instead of picking clothing everyday, people in Maldives (where the weather pretty much remains the same throughout) can choose to rotate clothes based on a number. Simplifying the slew of options out there also include making key, overarching decisions such as "I will not eat out this month" or "I will not buy anything online this year". These systems in place may just help save the decision-making energy for the more important things in life