Battling Brain Fatigue When You Have Decisions to Make
Brain fatigue can lead a person to make dumb decisions. This isn’t new information, but it’s especially relevant if your work puts intense demands on you. If mental energy is necessary for optimal performance, then decision-making is likely to suffer when your mental energy is drained.
Every decision, after all, leads to a chain of events, and it’s easier to consider what that chain might look like when you’re not coping with a mental overload. Conversely, every decision made by a fatigued brain runs the risk of being adversely affected. And so many things can contribute to brain fatigue. Lack of sleep can do it, as well as nutritional deficiencies, illness, certain medications, various kinds of injuries, and, of course, stress.
For that matter, decision-making itself can do it. Having to make a lot of decisions at work can deplete your decision-making ability. You might think of this situation as “mental gridlock.” When too many people rush around in too little space, they get in each other’s way and everyone is slowed down.
Similarly, having to make a lot of decisions quickly can diminish both the efficiency of your decision-making and the quality of the resulting decisions. In addition, an overload of work, nonstop interruptions, constant demands, changing priorities, and the relentless hubbub of the workplace can add to brain fatigue, further reducing your ability to make sound decisions.
It may be that by making a lot of decisions quickly, some people actually strengthen their decision-making ability so that they are less prone to brain fatigue. But whether that’s the case or not, the best way to fend off brain fatigue at work may be to minimize the circumstances that cause it, such as by delegating, improving work processes, or (where feasible) turning work away.
If that’s not possible and you find yourself immersed in circumstances conducive to brain fatigue, it can help to take a nap, take a walk, or simply take a break to give your weary brain a rest. Meditating, exercise, hobbies, and other such activities outside work may help delay or diminish work-induced brain fatigue. And who couldn’t use a boost toward making better decisions?
