➤ Have you ever done your grocery shopping when you’re hungry? Do you put more junk food in your trolley when you’re hungry [or hangry] compared to other times when you shop?
➤ When you’ve worked a long day and then get home to an uninspiring pantry or contents in your fridge, do you find it easier to dial your dinner?
➤ Knowing when you are tired or hungry or upset, do you notice a shift in the quality of your decisions?
When I’m tired I make poor decisions. I know this about myself and because I travel a fair bit the hotel mini bar can quickly become my nemesis! The mini bar is a plethora of poor – and expensive – decisions. To avoid poor outcomes of my decision fatigue, when I’m booking my hotel I usually ask to have the mini bar removed.
When I was looking into booking my latest hotel online, I got the impression from the website that the rooms did not have mini bars so I didn’t ask nor do I think to mention it when I was making the booking.
When I finally got to my room, very late in the evening after a long day, this was waiting for me! [see photo]
Thankfully I wasn’t so tired so I didn’t give in to ‘triple-the-price’ chocolate and chips. I did however ask for it to be removed for the remainder of my stay as I knew I’d have long days and would be tired.
The Productive Leadership Lessons:
- What do you do when you’re tired that you wouldn’t do if you had the energy to make better decisions? Put another way, when decision fatigue hits how do you behave?
- What impact does decision fatigue have on your personal productivity?
- What impact does decision fatigue have on the business decisions you make at work? **
- What one small change can you make to help improve your environment, focus, decisions when you are tired?
** Do you know what time of the day you are at your most alert and functioning at your best? If so, this is not the time check emails, it is the time to schedule your biggest decisions, your best thinking, most creative work.
Some personal productivity ideas:
- Regular check-ups
- Exercise
- Stand-up desks
- Stretching
- Setting a timer to regularly stand and stretch through your day (or at least get up and walk to get a drink of water)
- Drink more water
- Go to bed earlier
- Plan out and prepare your weekly meals [If you shop for – and prepare your – meals in advance then you are less likely to waste food and spend money on convenient food during the week.]
- Regular massages
I’d love to know your thoughts…
