After coming home one day last week from two tests, a quiz and a two-mile time trial for track try-outs, the last thing I wanted to do was struggle through homework for three hours. Most nights, I persevere through my schoolwork, but on this night in particular, I succumbed to the calling of “How to Get Away with Murder” instead and saved my homework for the next morning.
You’ve been there. I’ve been there (many times). We have all put ourselves in situations like this, I’m sure. But why is it that we make these unwise decisions even when we know we’d be better off simply doing our homework?
This lack of resolve can be explained in part by a concept coined by psychologist Roy Baumeister: decision fatigue. Baumeister defines decision fatigue as the deterioration of decision-making skills after making many decisions. Because of his discovery, we know that it isn’t just lack of sleep or physical activity that tires us out. Instead, decision fatigue can result from merely making choices.
In other words, every person has a finite amount of decisions they can reasonably make before they begin to make poor choices.
For example, a study conducted by Shai Danziger of Ben-Gurion University observed the tendencies of an Israeli parole board’s decisions. Right after short breaks, a prisoner’s chance of winning parole was 65 percent. The chances plummeted the longer the board members went without breaks and spiked immediately after breaks.
What does this mean for us, as Trinity Prep students, though? For one, college looms on the horizon for upper schoolers, and the decision process is rewarding but also very stressful.
Junior Sophia Pisello relates to the decision-making struggle. Though she still has a lot of time until she has to decide where she wants to go to college, juniors already have to consider many colleges before they narrow down their final choices.
“Almost every day my parents ask me about potential colleges,” Pisello said. “It is a huge decision, which often stresses me out.”
With the thousands of colleges that exist, it can be very difficult to narrow down your top picks to a mere 10 or 12 schools to apply to. This concept is applicable to anything, from the vast array of cereals in the grocery store to the variety of outfits we have to choose from in the morning.
Freshman Bhrajit Thakur agrees that when we are presented with too many options, it can leave us feeling dissatisfied.
A study conducted by Sheena Iyengar confirms Thakur’s statement: an increase in customers’ choices actually result in fewer purchases and less satisfaction.
“When I have too many options, it’s a lot harder to choose what I think is the right one,” Thakur said. “Even if I think my decision is right, I’m still not completely happy with it because of the many other choices that could have been better.”
Decision fatigue obviously influences us in many ways, but this knowledge is useless without knowing what we can do to reduce its negative impact.
In the case of the Israeli parole board, systematic breaks played a huge impact on the mindsets of the officers, which ended up leaving them more open-minded.
Similarly, this concept can be applied to teachers grading assignments. Some grading is objective, but in the case of essays or projects, much of the grade is left to the teacher’s discretion.
However, throughout his years teaching, English teacher Dean Rhoads has learned how to minimize subjectivity in his grading process.
“I go in with a sense that whatever grade I give for the first couple projects I grade is a tentative decision because I have to see where the level of performance is,” Rhoads said. “Along the way I have to take breaks and go walk around or make a cup of coffee. I don’t do anything that makes me involved in other activities because I don’t want to lose the frame of reference, but I have to take breaks. If I plow on, I will get short and irritated.”
Of course, once we turn a project in, the grade we receive is out of our hands. But we, too, can take actions to lessen the impact of decision fatigue.
Sophomore Gabby Pohlod has figured out what she needs to do to keep her decision-making skills up to par.
“I sometimes take naps right after school because I feel more rested and they help me to think more clearly,” Pohlod said.
Thakur agrees with this and adds that listening to music is another way to refresh your mind.
“I think that the main goal of these methods is to take your mind off of the craziness and surplus of decisions that you make everyday,” Thakur said. “If you can clear your mind, your decisions can be made with more thought and common sense.”
Coping mechanisms like this can also include packing lunches and planning out what to wear ahead of time so that you have more time to plan ahead, but it just takes time and trial-and-error to find the method that works for you.
“Personally throughout high school, I have grown and of course made some mistakes. But, I have learned from them and this has allowed me to mature as a person,” Pisello said.
And even though all the decisions we make can overwhelm us, it’s comforting to know that we can always turn to Netflix when we are fatigued by our daily choices.
