Decision Fatigue: What It Is and What It Might Be Telling You About Your Practice
- Kimberly Darling Collins
- 6 days ago
- 2 min read
We all experience decision fatigue from time to time. After a particularly demanding day, you may notice that decisions that normally feel simple suddenly feel exhausting. You might procrastinate, disengage, become more reactive, or simply feel like you cannot handle one more question.
That doesn't necessarily mean anything is wrong. Sometimes, it simply means you've reached your capacity for the day.
But when decision fatigue becomes a regular part of running your practice, it's worth paying attention.
When Decision Fatigue Becomes a Leadership Problem
Practice owners make an enormous number of decisions. Employees bring questions. Problems need to be solved. Patients or customers need attention. Schedules change. Something unexpected happens.
When too many of those decisions require the owner, eventually there isn't much capacity left for the decisions that actually need their expertise.
That's when decision fatigue can start showing up as emotional reactivity, disengagement, avoidance, or even systems beginning to break down.
Occasional decision fatigue may simply mean you need rest.
Daily decision fatigue may be telling you that your practice is too dependent on you.
Reducing Decision Fatigue
When I work with practice owners, one of the questions we look at is:
Which decisions actually need you?
The goal isn't to become better at making hundreds of decisions every day. It's to reduce the number of unnecessary decisions reaching you in the first place.
Clear policies, systems, procedures, and delegation allow many everyday decisions to be made without requiring the owner's involvement each time.
In many ways, a good policy is simply a decision you've made before the chaos arrives.
And when fewer unnecessary decisions depend on you, you have more capacity for creativity, leadership, relationships, and the complex decisions that really do require you.
Sustainable leadership isn't about increasing your capacity to carry everything. It's about building a practice that doesn't require you to.
For more information on how you can create systems in your practice that support you and your capacity, email me at enneagramreflections@gmail.com.
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