Don’t kill the project too late in the day

August 24, 2011

Timing is everything.

In a recent New York Times article John Tierney paints a convincing picture of the impact of timing on decisions, even those decisions with significant impact, such as the ones made by parole boards.

We all know the importance of a good night’s rest to doing our best work. Drawing on extensive research, Tierney explores this advice in the context of crucial decisions and why this folklore is essential to sound decision making.

It turns out there is a price to pay for making multiple decisions. The more decisions you make in a day, the more challenging and tiring they become. Tired by too many decisions, we tend to do one of two things. We either become reckless and impulsive (think about the last time you bought something you didn’t really need) or we do nothing in an effort to conserve energy.

Making decisions is another form of exerting willpower. Recent studies have shown that we have a finite amount of willpower that is easily exhausted. Exerting willpower in one area of our lives makes us less able to exert willpower in another – such as resisting the siren call of junk food late in the day.

Faced with multiple decisions we experience decision fatigue. A typical response might be to avoid the decision. Part of this resistance is based on a fear of giving up options (decide just like homicide and suicide comes from the Latin root that means “to cut down” or “to kill”). Making decisions can be viewed as ‘killing options’ so we tend to compromise or avoid making a decision when we are tired or have exhausted our stash of will power.

One clever study at a car dealership introduced multiple, small, no-cost decisions, such as choosing among dozens of colours for different parts of the car, early in the car buying process. This led customers to later settle for more expensive options once they had reached decision fatigue. Interestingly, other research has shown that glucose can restore will power, improving the quality of decisions.

We face hundreds of decisions every day, small and big. Whether it’s determining the best route to avoid traffic, figuring out which competing task takes priority, what email needs a response, who to promote, or which project to kill. Understanding the impact of decision fatigue is essential to conserving our finite resource of willpower so we can make better decisions with less mental effort.

Here are some thoughts on how to make good decisions under the best conditions:

1. Schedule important decisions early in the day and address the most crucial decisions at the beginning of the meeting.
2. Don’t mix strategic decisions with more numerous, smaller tactical decisions in the same meeting. Schedule two different meetings.
3. Review roles to identify those that inherently entail multiple decisions; make sure the person understands the impact of decision fatigue and plans appropriately.
4. Avoid making important or expensive decisions on an empty stomach.
5. Recognize the signs of decision fatigue and take a time out – or better yet, get a good night’s sleep.