Clear Thinking, Calmer Health Care: How to Beat Decision Fatigue and Reclaim Your Energy

Beat Decision Fatigue:

Systematize and Maximize

You’ve been at work for 45 minutes.

Quick. How many decisions have you already made today? Likely it’s thousands.

A 2021 analysis reported that an American adult makes approximately 35,000 decisions per day.

That’s a lot, especially when you consider the introvert’s tendency toward deep thinking. Thoroughly analyzing all angles of every issue takes time and energy.

When you add in the often high-stakes aspects of healthcare, it’s no wonder introverts struggle under the weight of decision fatigue.

It’s an important topic that has the potential to contribute to burnout and affect the quality of patient care.

What Causes Decision Fatigue?

Decision fatigue is the concept that repeated acts of decision-making can contribute to a decline in the quality of those decisions.

Simply put, like a muscle, our decision-making capacity loses stamina with overuse.

When this happens, our ability to process information and maintain sound reasoning is impaired. We can become so depleted that even our behaviors are affected. Decision fatigue has been implicated in acts of impulsivity, passivity, and avoidance.

For introverts who are prone to carefully considering their decisions, this can present a challenge.

Clinical medicine is all about assessing and choosing the best course of action. The need for decision making isn’t going to slow down, especially as more and more medical treatments show up on the scene.

Because of this, it’s important to protect your energy to ensure you show up as the clinician you want to be.

Let’s not forget that our work lives do not exist in a silo separate from our personal lives. Stress and overwhelm from work can bleed into your home life, and vice versa. It’s important to support yourself inside and outside of work.

Recognizing Decision Fatigue

How can you tell if too many decisions are starting to take their toll?

You might notice that you’re having more difficulty concentrating during your interactions with patients and colleagues. They’re talking, but your brain isn’t really absorbing what they’re saying.

Or you may notice yourself reviewing the same data over and over. There’s no forward momentum in addressing the issue at hand despite have spent valuable time ‘working’ on the task.

You may also notice that you’re ‘winging it’ when it comes to decision making, rather than your usual modus operandi of logically thinking through your actions.

Finally, you might find yourself becoming easily frustrated when faced with a patient’s complex medical issues, or you might find yourself withdrawing from situations that usually wouldn’t challenge you.

Strategies to Reduce Decision Fatigue

When you start noticing the tell-tale signs of decision fatigue, it’s time to get proactive about supporting yourself.

Here’s how to get started:

Systematize the Decision Making Processes

To create a sense of calm and control, give yourself the gift of simplicity. Save more of your energy for complex decisions and let the more mundane decisions be easy. Where can this come into play?

-Consider simplifying your wardrobe or laying clothes out ahead of time so you’re not spending extra time and brain power on getting ready in the morning.

-Pay attention to when you’re at your best mentally and physically during the day. For complex or high-stakes decisions (that aren’t emergencies), give yourself the benefit of addressing them when you feel fully recharged.

--Create routines so you’re not always reinventing your day. Use templates and checklists to eliminate the need to spend precious brain power on tasks and procedures you do on a daily basis.

-Try batching similar decisions together so you can think through the problem once and then apply the same reasoning to many tasks. In the clinic, you could even consider grouping similar visit types together to create a mental flow for a part of your day.

-Avoid multitasking when you can. Clearly, patient care requires flexibility. Your schedule is often in motion. Take advantage of any opportunity to give yourself the gift of singular focus. Not every task is urgent or important. Take the time to identify which circumstances warrant interruption and which ones can wait. Even 10-minute blocks of focus may allow for greater energy management and ease the load of decision-making.

-Respect your role in the healthcare system. If you find yourself doing tasks that aren’t part of your job, allow others to step up. If impatience or perfectionism tempt you to jump in and complete tasks that aren’t really yours, take a breath and step back. These tasks use mental bandwidth that could be saved for the inevitable complex decisions that arise.

-Be on the lookout for opportunities to collaborate with colleagues and team members. Something that may require a lot of thought or effort on your part may be second nature to someone else. Take advantage of shared skills to accomplish tasks more efficiently. Taking in others’ perspectives also allows for creative problem solving.

Maximize Energy Reserves

Your baseline energy and alertness is greatly affected by your personal habits. Pay attention to subtle shifts that can make a big difference in your day.

-Take advantages of breaks in the schedule that allow you to regroup. This might be sneaking into a quiet room for a few minutes of reprieve, heading outdoors for a change in environment, or using mindfulness techniques.

-Support your body through adequate rest and nourishing nutrition. Elevate your energy through movement that feels good to you. Reap the benefits of regularly going to sleep and waking up at the same time every day.

-Honor your needs as an introvert. Create boundaries that serve both you and those around you. Simple requests can include letting others know your preferred methods of communication or creating protected times when you’re not available for interruption. Respect your need for periodic alone time to recharge.

In the end, you can help prevent and beat decision fatigue by honoring your unique needs. Introverts tend to think deeply and function best when free from interruption.

Busy medical settings don’t always provide the best environment for introverts. Be on the lookout for early signs of mental depletion so you can be proactive.

Finding ways to prevent and reduce symptoms of decision fatigue isn’t selfish. Your colleagues and patients depend on you. Take care of yourself so you’re able to take care of them to the best of your ability.

Feeling overwhelmed? I can help. Find out more here.