If you’re feeling stuck making decisions, you’re not alone, and there’s nothing wrong with you. Sometimes, problems making decisions can stem from deeper issues such as depression, anxiety, or obsessive-compulsive disorder. But most adults now report difficulty making even simple decisions.
Stress, uncertainty, and an overload of information have resulted in a high level of decision fatigue. About one-third of adults (32%) said they struggle with basic decisions. (APA Harris Poll, 2024) and about 61% are rethinking how they are living their lives.
One recent survey reported that of over 14,000 leaders in 17 countries, 86% were less confident in making decisions, 85% suffered from decision distress, and 72% were paralyzed from making decisions at all.
The brain can tolerate just so much before it goes into a rest cycle. Brains avoid decisions when they can because decision-making takes a lot of energy. Willpower and decision-making ability go down fast with the number and complexity of decisions. After a time, you get less cautious, and your decisions get more impulsive. That’s why the impulse items are at grocery checkouts.
Much is written on the decision-making process, steps to good decisions, and making decisions at work, but very little on why and how to monitor decision overload and create conditions for the best decisions.
HELP YOUR BRAIN MAKE BETTER DECISIONS
1. Make important decisions earlier in the day before brain fatigue sets in.
2. Avoid making multiple decisions in a row. Decision-making takes so much brain energy, that after three or four decisions there just isn’t enough left for rational decisions. Think of the impulse items at checkouts. Auto salespeople who deliberately present you with yet another decision at the end of the decision-making process for auto purchase - it’s often for a high-end safety system that you probably font need. Don’t get caught.
3. Cut down on unimportant decisions. If you don’t have to decide - don’t! “What do you want for dinner?” “Surprise me!” “What kind of pizza?” “You choose.” Don’t waste your Decision Quotient.
4. Give your brain a rest. If decision-making is getting fuzzy, resent your brain. Get into nature. Go for a run. Take a shower. Meditate. Stare at a blank wall.
5. Think about doing less. If your brain is telling you that you’re doing too much, you're doing too much. If your brain is overloaded with too many to-dos, it won’t have the energy left for good decisions.
Information overload is not going to let down, and decisions we are forced to make will become even more complex, not less. The brain’s capacity wasn’t set up for this level of complexity. Guard your decision-making energy and make good decisions.
