Someone I know was running a fast-moving start up a few years ago, and hit a point when, even with his projects and actions identified, he was overwhelmed one day by what to do next.
He said, he bailed and went to an afternoon movie to escape.
While people have done worse, and sometimes we all need a break, decision fatigue can be a long-term drain on our effectiveness.
What to do when there are too many choices?
Break them down into binary options.
It’s much easier to tell if option A is better than option B, than it is to pluck the best choice out of 100. Then put the winner of this decision against the choice between C and D, and so forth.
March is the madness in me, and I propose a time-honored strategy for winnowing options into an optimum choice: a decision tree.
Fill in the first column at random. Don’t worry, the best choice will win all the contests on the way to the finish.