5 Steps to Effective Decision Making in the Face of Analysis Paralysis
Welcome to my internal dialogue, a series of never-ending questions that roll around in my noggin day in and day out like party hangers-on who just don’t want the fun to end. Do I say yes to the speaking event? Do I respond to that email now? Do I wait until tomorrow when I might have a better response? Is that sneeze just a sniffle or full-blown COVID? Do I want pizza or a burrito? Do I spend too much on take-out? Should I make something at home and save money? Should I go for a walk right now? Prioritize my writing? Am I saving enough towards retirement?
You get the picture. Feel free to share some of the internal scripts you have with the uninvited party guests living in your brain.
As a mental health professional, a frequent question posed to me is; why is it so damn hard to make a decision? And why do even simple decisions cause so much anxiety and uncertainty? Let’s explore a few types of decisions first and then dive into ways to tackle decision fatigue and the dreaded analysis paralysis.
Types of Decision Making
First, let’s categorize different types of decisions. Depending on the industry, you’ll find numerous categories of decision-making out there. For our purposes, let’s simplify and condense into the following three categories:
- Long-term (Strategic) decisions can include career goals, career changes, relationship priorities, business and financial goals, family planning, and other significant life changes. Think about what you had to chew on for a while to come to a decision. Maybe it was deciding to buy a new house, start your own business, propose to your partner, or go to graduate school.
- Short-term (Routine) decisions. These types of decisions you are faced with daily or weekly. It could be meal planning, exercising, getting out of bed at a specific time, work or business-related tasks, sleep hygiene, screen exposure, or time spent with family or friends.
- Snap (Intuitive) decisions are made in haste and without careful consideration. They are not always bad, and sometimes we are left with little choice but to make a snap or intuitive decision. Think of these as going with our gut.
Now, of course, there are many other types of decisions or ways we can break this down. Individual and group decisions, personal, tactical, policy, organizational, and analytical, are different ways we can conceptualize decisions. But for now, let’s stick with our three: Strategic, Routine, and Intuitive.
The Drain of Decision-Making & Decision Fatigue
Rarely are we operating in only one type of decision-making process. We juggle our Routine decisions every day, Intuitive decisions pop up like a highly unpleasant game of Wack-a-Mole, and our Strategic decisions simmer on the back burner threatening to boil over any second now.
Meanwhile, the latest COVID-19 variant stares at us like a toothless carny as he takes our $5 and hands us a fistful of darts to throw at under inflated balloons. It feels like we just can’t win.
Every day we make thousands of decisions. The ongoing stress of chronic conscious and unconscious decision-making can lead to ego depletion, more commonly known as decision fatigue. In speaking about decision fatigue, Dr. Lisa MacLean, MD, a psychiatrist with the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, MI, states, “The more decisions you have to make, the more fatigue you develop, and the more difficult it can become.” According to Dr. MacLean, “…by the time the average person goes to bed, they’ve made over 35,000 decisions and all of those decisions take time and energy, and can deplete us.”
Symptoms of Decision Fatigue
If you have ever stared at a full refrigerator and burst into tears, overwhelmed by your choices, you have likely experienced decision fatigue. Common symptoms include:
- Avoidance
- Procrastination
- Impulsiveness
- Indecision (“analysis paralysis”)
It is important to note that ego depletion, and decision fatigue, are not formal mental health diagnoses. Instead, they are observed psychological phenomena with inconclusive scientific backing. Something is going on, but the nature of that something has yet to be determined. There is, however, some evidence of a cultural component, as Western populations are more likely to show signs of ego depletion than other populations around the globe.
Those with underlying mental health issues, such as depression or generalized anxiety, may also be more likely to experience decision fatigue.
The Unpleasant Landscape of Analysis Paralysis
Overanalyzing is the bane of my existence. I can hem and haw. Wring my hands. Turn things over in my mind until I’m dizzy. It is not a fun experience.
Analysis paralysis refers to the experience of indecisiveness with the outcome of…well, there is no outcome. We repeatedly analyze our options, which stunts our ability to make a decision. There is no result. Part of the problem is I don’t just want to make a decision; I want to make the best decision. In the meantime, I end up not deciding at all. I feel stuck. I am stuck. And now even more stressed.
In times like these, I employ a handful of strategies that can help me move forward into a more practical mindset for effective decision-making.
5 Steps for Effective Decision Making
- Make time to stare at your belly button. A sociology professor I had in college told a lecture hall full of 100 very confused 18-year-olds that she scheduled time every day to stare at her belly button. Because I am now ancient, this was in the mid-1990s. The Internet was a mere infant. Only those hiding out in the Office of Spiritual Life had discussions of mindfulness and meditation. This professor explained that, as a researcher and writer, she needed to schedule time every day to think. Yes, just to think. Belly button staring can be especially helpful if you have lingering Strategic decisions. It does not need to be any formal meditation practice, though it can be. Find a schedule that works for you. It could be 5, 10, or 30 minutes per day. Or maybe a weekly or biweekly schedule works better if you need more prolonged periods. Now get to that belly button staring.
- Delegate (No, you don’t need to control everything). You’ve likely heard or read about the power of delegating in a professional setting. Good managers don’t do; they delegate. If you are in a management or supervisory role, carve out time to think about what you can delegate to others if you’re feeling overwhelmed. Likely no new information there. However, we often don’t translate this to our personal lives. Are there Routine tasks you can delegate to someone else? It might be worth paying someone to clean your house or organize your garage. If you’re overwhelmed, ask your spouse to help with meal planning. Be explicit about your current limitations and struggles. Own it and ask for help.
- Automate. I recently listed to the audiobook of Atomic Habits by James Clear. One of my main takeaways was the power of automation. Automation includes one-time actions that support ongoing good habits. A typical example of automation is automatically taking retirement savings out of our paychecks. Automating this process removes the decision of whether or not we can afford to contribute to our retirement. It just happens. What other aspects of our life can we automate? We can limit distractions by removing social media apps from our phones to stay more focused on work tasks. We can collaborate with our family to develop an ongoing, weekly cleaning schedule, subscribe to a meal service plan, or remove the TV and put our phone on Do Not Disturb overnight for better sleep. Take the time (to stare at your belly button) and think about other one-time actions in your life that can pay dividends over time and remove yet another Routine decision from your life.
- Let go of perfectionism. You will make wrong decisions. Particularly when it comes to Intuitive decision-making, our gut is not always correct. Avoid replaying past choices and thinking about the what-ifs. It is wise to learn from our mistakes and reflect on past decisions that have gone wrong. We would be remiss not to learn from our past. But living in the shame, blame, and spiraling anxiety of our past decisions dramatically impacts our ability to make decisions in the present. Make a decision and let it go.
- Productivity is not the brass ring. A quick Google search for “decision fatigue” will turn up several articles and blog posts about how decision fatigue destroys productivity. Well, no arguments here. Yet, is productivity for productivity’s sake the goal? Being productive makes us feel valuable, competent, and even a bit special. Yet, to bring my carnival metaphor all the way through, you can reach for that brass ring, but you’re still on the carousel. You are going around and around and around. Get off the ride and figure out what is important to you. Prioritize your decisions and channel your productive energy towards what is most important.
The Final Word on Decision-Making
Finally, in the words of Willie Nelson (or Pearl Jam or Faith Hill…so many references), just breathe. Cultural pressures to constantly produce are stressful and easily overwhelming. We can feel like productivity is tied to our self-worth and that every decision we make needs an immediate and correct answer. When you struggle with analysis paralysis, take a moment, step back, strategize, and prioritize. Have a do-nothing day now and then. Give your body and your brain a break to allow more effective decision-making in the present and into the future.
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