[post] Decision Fatigue

data/posts/0034-e2m-decision-fatigue.md

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+!! title: Engineer to Manager - Decision Fatigue Solutioning
+!! slug: e2m-decision-fatigue
+!! published: 2024-03-25
+!! description: A discussion on decision fatigue (ego depletion) and some thoughts around how to solve for it
+
+---
+
+In the transition from engineer to manager, I have observed that there is less room in my personal
+life for decisions. After a long day of meetings, the need to make even simple decisions on what I
+want to eat or how I want to spend my personal time has been greatly affected.
+
+This was no more obvious than in one of my friendships. I have a friend that seems to almost refuse
+to make a decision that will affect other people. Any time I ask where they would like to go to eat,
+the response is to ask where I would like to eat. When I have chosen the last five ski runs and ask
+which we should do next, the response is whichever one I want to do. I could tell that every time
+the decision was turned back to me, I would lose some sort of energy. As I became a manager, there
+was even less of that energy to lose since decisions have to be made every day at work. 
+
+I heard the term "decision fatigue" at some point and figured that that is what I had and thought
+noting further on the topic. This would explain some of the events growing up where I would
+truthfully answer the question of what I wanted to eat with "I do not have a preference" and answer
+the followup suggestion with an affirmation. Decisions on what to wear and what to eat take some of
+that energy that could be used for larger and more important decisions later in the day.
+
+While recently reading a book on smart note taking, I have stumbled upon the academic term for this,
+_ego depletion_ (Ahrens 2022). Ego depletion is why some people eat the same thing every day for
+breakfast and why some people wear the same outfit every day as these are one less thing to use the
+decision making energy on. Once the energy is used, it has to be replenished before one can continue
+making decisions. Decisions of self-control, responsibility, and discrete choices all deplete this
+energy. 
+
+My personality tends to focus on one aspect of my life or one interest at a time. I want that focus
+to receive the majority of my energy. My energy has been poured into my day job over the last few
+years and as I have become a manager, my decision making energy has been almost fully reserved and
+used for making decisions at my day job. My personal life decisions get the leftovers.
+
+I am curious on how best to replenish this energy and how to limit the expenditures of it in
+the first place. I need to do more research on replenishing the decision making energy to satisfy
+the curiosity of replenishing, but I have an ideas on how to start minimizing the depletion.
+
+Small things like what to eat for breakfast and some formula to decide what to wear help--like rotating
+between three pairs of pants. But these small decisions do not help with minimizing the number of
+decisions required at work. Creating policy and procedure, however, does. In the world of
+operations--be it business operations, manufacturing operations, or operating an aircraft--having
+checklists and runbooks to follow allow for only a single decision to be made to start a process:
+start the predefined process or not to start it. 
+
+The entire aircraft industry is tightly regulated. There are checklists along every step of the way,
+starting with the manufacturing of the aircraft, through operations and maintenance, until the
+aircraft is retired from service. When a door is replaced on a plane the mechanic does not have to
+consider what decisions to make to verify the safety of the replacement. Instead there is a
+checklist of all of the predefined areas that need to be checked. Similarly, pilots have predefined
+checklists for every portion of operating an aircraft. There are pre-flight checklists, takeoff
+checklists, landing checklists, and checklists for every sort of emergency imaginable. The operation
+of the aircraft does not have to rely on the constant decision making of what to do in these
+predictable situations.
+
+Creating these processes, checklists, and runbooks saves the decision making energy for things that
+especially require the decisions. If an emergency happens, little energy should be wasted on
+remembering the long series of buttons and switches needed to recover to stable flight. Instead, all
+of the energy should be focused on resolving the emergency. 
+
+Similarly in an organization, creating policy and process enables energy to be spent solving larger
+problems that constantly threaten the existence of the company like the economy and competition.
+Spending energy repeatedly solving small and similar problems drains the decision making energy.
+This energy drain risks the stock of energy when an existential crisis happens or some other
+emergency unfolds where that energy is required. It also risks the longevity of the employees making
+these decisions. The lack of decision making energy has a direct impact in the individual's lives,
+and if depleted too far too often, there will come a time where it is no longer sustainable for the
+employee. Life partners will get upset with the lack of decision making ability in the partnership.
+Individuals will get frustrated for not be making the desired progress on life goals.
+
+The Agile manifesto pushes for people over process (Beck et al. 2001). I think a more sustainable
+perspective is a collaborative approach to process and policy to support people and to minimize the
+number of decisions they are required to make during a work day.
+
+
+---
+
+## Resources
+
+1. Ahrens, Sönke. How to Take Smart Notes: One Simple Technique to Boost Writing, Learning and Thinking. 2nd edition, Revised and Expanded edition, Sönke Ahrens, 2022.
+2. Beck, Kent, et al. Manifesto for Agile Software Development. 2001, https://agilemanifesto.org/.
+
+