At this point, by 2pm you’ve already made hundreds of choices. What you should wear, which email to respond preemptively and what client inquiries need addressing. By the time some of your big, strategic decisions are done and out in-market (you know, those that actually move your business forward), well…your brain is tired. You are experiencing decision fatigue, and it is sabotaging your success without you even knowing that this problem exists. For help from Worcester Business Coaching, contact https://www.randall-payne.co.uk/services/business-advisory/business-coaching/worcester/
The Hidden Cost of Micro-Decisions
We make about 35,000 decisions each day and every one spends our mental energy. The burden is even greater on business owners, who must expend cognitive resources for every decision from which supplier to choose down to what the best staffing schedule would be. You become worn down and exhausted, so that by the afternoon your decision-making quality nosedives into bad judgment calls or second-guessing yourself back to inaction.
Those with the best success as entrepreneurs pay attention to this one downfall and build their business around it. They do not power through decision fatigue, instead they eradicate it.
The Automation Advantage
Without a doubt, smart business owners automate everything they can to keep themselves as sharp for the high-impact decisions. It has nothing to do with sophisticated and expensive software but about establishing systems that remove the element of choice from mundane activities.
Financial Transactions: Automatically invoice, remind to pay and specify expense circuits free you from making financial decisions every day. Regular payments are taken care of automatically through the use of direct debits.
Communication Templates: Reused standard responses for typical enquiries, booking confirmations or followup sequences to avoid manually creating a new message every time.
Online booking platforms: Set up time slots where the client is allowed to schedule their appointment, and avoid unnecessary scheduling talks.
Post on a Schedule: No more “What should I post today?” with editorial calendars and social media schedulers.
The Compound Effect
The real benefit of automation is the compounding gains it provides. Every automated process means mental energy is freed up to plan. More strategic decision making processes lead to business expansion. On the other end of it, growth begets resources and then automation – a circle that leads to more efficiency and prosperity.
Implementation Strategy
Start small. Find your three most common daily decisions, and systematise them this week. Show your employees some easy wins to build momentum, then open the engine on all of that complicated process.
