Here’s what I see consistently in my clients:
They don’t leverage their limitations.
Hear me out.
My high-performers protect their “time” but they don’t leverage their decision making capacity.
And that’s where executive function quietly starts to fizzle out.
Decision fatigue is one of the most under-recognized constraints in executive performance. Not because it’s subtle—but because it doesn’t feel like failure. It feels like “still functioning.”
Engaging the world where our prefrontal cortex is running the show is expensive. Planning, judgment, impulse control, prioritization – all fatigue with sustained demand and demand for a higher glucose cost.
The catch: Our “decision capacity” doesn’t send a clear signal when it’s running low.
What’s the cost of not recognizing this limitation? You don’t feel depleted. You just start accepting slightly worse ideas. Delaying decisions you shouldn’t. Or making calls that are “fine”… but not sharp.
Decision-fatigue is not a new idea. Studies have been done and findings documented.
In a well-known experiment by Kathleen Vohs and colleagues, participants who were asked to make repeated choices—simple ones, like selecting products—showed significantly reduced persistence and self-control afterward. Not because they were tired in the traditional sense, but because the act of choosing itself depleted cognitive resources.
Same brain. Same person. Different output—based purely on how many decisions had already been made.
Your cognitive output isn’t just about capability. It’s about timing and load – much like resistance exercise.
How you layout your decision making in your day may be the best thing you do with your time.
Ideas for improving your “brain friction”:
- Protect the front end of your day. Strategy, high-yield problem-solving, complex conversations—these happen early. Before you have been run down by the PTA or what’s for dinner texts.
- Remove friction from the baseline. If you can mechanize it, mechanize it. Food, clothing, laundry, scheduling—standardized. Every eliminated decision is preserved bandwidth for something that actually matters and removes the drain of things that don’t improve your cognitive position.
- Build in actual resets. Not multitasking. Not scrolling. Actual low stimulus: sleep, quiet, time outside, single-task physical work. The kind of recovery that restores prefrontal function—not just distracts from fatigue.
This in not about a lack of disciplined.
You are just not spending decision-making capacity on things that don’t deserve it.
So the better question isn’t: how productive was your day?
It’s: Did you leverage your decision making? Did you make the most out of your limitations?
