Today, let’s talk about decision fatigue.
Recently, I read an article in the Harvard Business Review that caught my attention, The Power of Anomaly by Martin Reeves, Bob Goodson, and Kevin Whitaker. It reminded me that everyone tends to fall into decision making patterns. However, being an entrepreneur, that tendency can be a bit more dangerous.
We make more decisions than the average person, and those decisions can carry a significant amount of weight and risk. We constantly need to remind ourselves to watch out for decision fatigue. To watch our emotional bandwidth. To keep an open mind.
If we don’t practice good decision making, we’ll fall into that familiar pattern of reacting without thinking things through. And in that pattern, we’ll miss out on the benefits of the unusual.
A great exercise that helps maintain good decision making hygiene is asking the following question: “Does this help me only in the short term OR does this help me in the long term?” This simple question can interrupt that reaction-first, short term thought process.
As entrepreneurs, we’re unusual and different. We’re the outliers in the data sample.
Take some time and read through The Power of Anomaly -- it provides a great framework for identifying new, unexpected trends and, through that process, disrupting usual patterns of decision making.
Is there an anomaly that you ignored recently? Did it have the potential to help you and your business? Let’s set up a time to talk about your decision making process.