Pick Your Best Time to Make A Great Decision

The New York Times recently ran a great article by John Tierney entitled "Do You Suffer From Decision Fatigue?"

The article basically states that EVERYONE needs mental energy in order to make good decisions. When we are tired, a portion of our brain starts looking for immediate rewards.  Those rewards can have disastrous long-term consequences on our diet, or budget, or our need to be paroled.

The article is packed with examples, which means you should print the article out and mark it up for later use in presentations. Here are a couple of gems.

• Judges deciding who got paroled provided it 70% of the time in the early morning.  Anyone who was scheduled for later in the day received parole only 10% of the time.
• Grocery Stores understand that by the time you hit the checkout lane your willpower will be low from making dozen's of "good" decisions about what to put in your cart.  Therefore, they provide a host of sugary sweets to give you the shot of glucose you need to make it home.
• A man decides to buy a custom suit.  He enters the store and faces a very important decision at the start of the experience.  He is taken to a table filled with thousands of mini-fabric samples to choose the fabric for his suit.  A few minutes later, after being worn out looking at fabrics that seem to be similar, the man starts taking the recommendations of the tailor just to get out of the shop.  The large number of selections at the start of the experience killed the man's willpower to consider details at the middle or end of the experience.

The article then provides the key's to making great decisions

1. The idea is to conserve willpower throughout your day.  
2. Don't put yourself in situations where you need to make important decisions after making many small decisions.
3. Don't make similar decisions each day.  If you are going to exercise, don't ask yourself each morning if you are going to exercise that day.  Just make the decision to exercise X times per work and lay out your workout gear before going to bed.
4. Don't make important decisions later in the evening or when your energy is low.

How I avoid decision fatigue

• If I am asked to present to a group or in a meeting, I want to go first, right after lunch, or at the end of the conference.  All the other spots are low energy and I know that the crowd/leaders won't have the energy to pay attention, or make a good decision.
• If I have to make a decision I do it between 7-11 AM.  11 to 5PM is bad as I am tired and burned out from hitting things hard earlier in the day.  If I am allowed to get up and move around from 11 to 5 I am refreshed and can work and make decisions from 6-10PM.
• When you have a problem come in and talk to me.  Present the problem, provide two solutions, and then indicate the one you would select and why.  80% of the time I will go along with you.
• Travel tips: Always take the first flight of the day as the plane is already on the ground and the crew is coming over from the hotel.  This means getting up at 4AM so arrange things so you don't have to make important decisions on heavy travel days.
• I try and put as many of my everyday decisions on autopilot as possible.  I have built a morning routine that I do not have to think about. Exercising, reading the papers, and the first hour of the work day are the same everyday.  When I travel I work to find a great place to eat right near my hotel.  I keep the location in Evernote and then when I return I stay at the same hotel and eat at the same place again.  No decision required.

I really enjoyed this article because it provided me with multiple mini-stories that I can use in presentations to make my points, and spur the audience to action.