After more than a year of living through a pandemic, many of us are feeling worn down by trying to make decisions while feeling like we don’t know what tomorrow holds. It can be exhausting, especially when it comes to running a business.
“Companies have had to tackle so many challenges and contend with so much uncertainty, that it’s understandable when decision fatigue sets in,” says Oz Desai, General Manager Corporate Traveller. “The impact of COVID on our lives, and our businesses, has caused us to constantly assess risks and obsess over even the smallest decisions. This has gone on for so long that many of us are actually paralysed and can’t make decisions anymore.”
Jodi Hume, a Personal Strategist and Facilitator for business leaders in the US, Europe and Australia, says that people with decision fatigue attribute their inability to make a decision to not having enough information to know what is going to happen in the near future; “However, this is inaccurate.”
People with decision fatigue attribute their inability to make a decision to not having enough information to know what is going to happen in the near future: “However, this is inaccurate.”
Rather, decision fatigue is the result of a person making too many demands on themselves, and not taking care of their neurology. She explains, “There is a set amount of energy that gets allocated to decision making each day and if you use this up on unnecessary issues that someone else could be handling, it will be gone when you need it for the important decisions.”
The solution? “The best way to combat decision fatigue is by reducing your decision load and removing drains on your neurological energy reserves so that you can focus on the decisions that matter,” she says.
This means, outsourcing decisions tasks that are not core to your role, and which someone else can safely handle. Desai adds that many experts are available to help you; “These experts will be hired to execute these tasks with a business’s best interests in mind and deliver better results than the company could on their own.”
“Business leaders need their all their mental resources to make the tough decisions required to optimise business performance during these trying times.”
He believes this is particularly true with business travel, given the complexities that the pandemic has introduced – especially to international travel, where different countries have very different health and safety regulations and requirements.
“Business leaders need their all their mental resources to make the tough decisions required to optimise business performance during these trying times. They don’t need to be spending time also trying to attend to the ever-changing details of business travel during the pandemic,” he says.
Hume adds that it is also important to reach out and ask for help when it is needed. She says, “We need to recognise that there is nothing to feel guilty about. The first step to getting back on track is giving ourselves the support we need. This is how we share the load – and find the best solutions to challenges faced. Find the right partners and use their expertise to your advantage.”
READ: Managing your mental health during the COVID-19 crisis
