How it feels, and how to make better choices under pressure
The nature of the job means that as a leader, you carry a great deal more than your workload. At the back end of the year, you’re probably feeling it more than ever - there’s been almost a year's worth of decision making, plus the pressure of Q4 targets, not to mention the mental load of the new employment rights changes that started at the end of 2025.
If you were carrying all that as physical weight, you’d happily acknowledge the weariness it creates; and the fatigue you feel from all that decision making is just as valid. The good news is that there is something you can do about it.
What is decision fatigue?
Making decisions, big or small, calls on a lot of cognitive function and can also take an emotional toll, depending on the topic. The fatigue that builds from this, day in day out, can manifest in a few different ways: most commonly, a feeling that the whole decision making process is a lot more difficult and exhausting for you than it used to be.
It’s not a sudden effect - it starts almost imperceptibly, and you might put some of the symptoms down to a bad day: it’s harder to get your thinking going, and even small choices seem to require disproportionate effort. Perhaps you’re avoiding decisions that used to feel routine, defaulting to whatever option is easiest rather than best. You might find you’re feeling more irritable late in the day, and relying too heavily on other people's opinions instead of forming an independent judgement as you normally would.
Why Q4 makes it worse
In the last quarter, your mental load peaks. There’s the year-end planning and budget sign-offs, plus you could be facing performance reviews and hiring decisions that need to get in before January – plus anything you’ve got demanding your time outside work as Christmas looms ahead.
Everything is converging and demanding time, attention and decisions from you at once. That also means your recovery time shrinks as well. Back-to-back meetings, late emails, and "just a quick call" will be eroding the micro-breaks that are normally there in between the stressors, allowing you to restore a little.
Add the Employment Rights Act 2025, which became law on 18 December 2025 and introduced important legislation changes between 2025 and 2027, and you've got a perfect storm. New rights confirmed include day-one paternity and parental leave, statutory sick pay, protections for pregnant workers, increased protection from unfair dismissal, an end to exploitative zero-hours contracts, and a new right to bereavement leave. For leaders, that means more policy updates, more conversations with teams, and more decisions about how to implement changes fairly and consistently, exactly when their mental bandwidth is already stretched. These can also be the ones that take a lot of emotional toll as well.
How decision making depletes you
Over time, the fatigue from making decisions chips away at your thinking resources. When pressure mounts, your brain tries to protect you from overload and you move into short-term survival thinking, which narrows what you feel able to tackle, and makes long-term strategy feel like a distant dream.
You might notice that you hesitate more on critical calls, that you second-guess decisions you’ve already made, or you default to "safe" options. You could be feeling more able to think about what feels urgent rather than important, and most of all, that thinking feels more effortful than the situation warrants.
Strategies to improve your decision-making
Essentially, when you feel like this, your brain needs a break – time when it’s using fewer resources, guidance on what it should be prioritising, and a reduction in the number of decisions it actually needs to make. Try these strategies for giving your brain the break it needs, and to step back and check on the decisions you’re making:
1. Protect a daily window of reflection time
Block a 20-minute window at the end of each day that is not for emails, but for reflecting. Use it to review what decisions you’re carrying, and what you need to think through before you can decide. This simple pause interrupts the endless loop and gives you a bit more clarity about the choices you’ll make tomorrow.
2. Use the 3-point check
Before any high-stakes call or meeting, run through this three-part exercise:
First: Ask, "What is the real decision being made here?" State it in one sentence.
Second: Ask, "What matters most right now?" Pick one priority: safety, cash, reputation, customer, or team stability.
Third: Ask, "What is the smallest decisive action?" Consider what might create a little time and breathing space, or give you the information you need.
3. Separate reversible from irreversible decisions
For reversible decisions, decide fast and crack on. For irreversible ones, schedule time for a deeper review when you're feeling fresher - later today, or later this week. This protects your capacity for the decisions that carry more risk.
4. Design better defaults
It may be that not every decision on your plate needs to sit with you. Build your team’s capability to decide – set agreed parameters, and create some default options for some routine decisions that regularly crop up. This frees your attention for the more strategic decisions and reduces the total number of choices you face each day.
5. Physically move before you decide
Physical movement genuinely shifts your cognitive state. A short walk, a few stretches, or just standing up and breathing for two minutes can give you a new perspective, and new energy for thinking.
6. Apply the 10-10-10 rule and values check
If you’re second-guessing yourself, try these:
10-10-10 rule: How will you feel about this decision in 10 minutes, 10 months, and 10 years?
Values check: Ask, "Which option aligns best with who I want to be?" Even when you can't think through complex scenarios, you can usually access your core values – and when a decision sits well with them, you’re more likely to look back on it with satisfaction and confidence that it was right
If you’re feeling it, it’s time to address that decision fatigue head-on. Recognise it, protect your capacity and give your brain the space it needs to recover and dedicate itself to the decisions that really matter.
With the right structures, you can make clearer, calmer choices under pressure and finish the year with healthy momentum, ready to take on what the next one holds and with strategies for making the decisions you’ll face.
Ready to tackle decision fatigue and make clearer, calmer choices? Get in touch to explore how we can help you protect your capacity and build strategies for the decisions that matter.
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