Episode 12: The 7 Best Strategies For Overcoming Decision Fatigue

Have you ever had this conversation with your spouse or partner? “Where do you want to go for dinner?” “Oh, I don’t know, you decide.” “How about sushi?” “No, not sushi.” “OK, how about Thai?” “No, definitely not Thai food tonight.” “Well, then where do you want to go?” “Oh, I don’t know, I want you to decide.”

Has this ever happened to you? You get home from a long day at school, you sit down for the first time and you say to yourself, “I am not making one more decision today”. Then one of your kids walks up to you and says, “What’s for dinner?”

If either of those scenarios sounded familiar to you and/or made you cringe a little, I have a theory that I would like to share with you. I think that these situations have less to do with how you communicate with your partner. I think that you may have succumbed to decision fatigue.

As an independent school leader, you make hundreds of complex decisions a day. Some of them are high stakes decisions. Many of these decisions will be second guessed by teachers, parents, students, board members or all of the above! Your ability to make decisions is FINITE. As the day goes on, the research shows that your ability to make good decisions falters. This phenomenon is called decision fatigue.

On today’s episode of The Private School Leader Podcast, you are going to learn The 7 Best Strategies For Overcoming Decision Fatigue:

1) Acknowledge that it is real

2) Plan your day

3) Have an index card on the corner of your desk

4) Proactively reduce the number of decisions that you make

5) Clarity is your friend

6) Give yourself fuel

7) Schools are not emergency rooms

If you implement just one or two of these strategies, you will make better decisions at school and, hopefully, have a little left in your tank so you can decide what to eat for dinner! So, while you're driving to school or walking the dog, pop in your earbuds for your weekly dose of motivation, inspiration and PD!

Check out a bunch of free resources for you at www.theprivateschooleader.com/resources and grab the show notes at www.theprivateschoolleader.com/episode12