Reclaim your Brain with Intentional Decision-Making

Intentional Decision-making to Reclaim Cognitive Capacity

Intentional living is all about conscious, thoughtful, strategic utilization of our most valuable resources:

🔹 time

🔹 energy

🔹 attention &

🔹 cognitive capacity

While cognitive capacity can be expanded over time through intentional cultivation, within a day or a week, it is fixed and finite.

How we allocate it matters.

Our brains are under constant demand, continuously absorbing inputs and filtering down to the 0.0002% that we’re actually able to process.

Add to that the deluge of decisions to be made throughout the day, from the micro (what snack to eat) to the macro (should I accept the job offer) and everything in between.

It’s no wonder we often feel “brain dead”.

And of course, the more depleted our cognitive capacity is from all that damn functioning, the more difficult it becomes to do anything else:

self-regulate

access intuition

store knowledge

predict outcomes

react thoughtfully

decide intelligently

process information

make smart decisions

(in my case, do mental math).

Yikes!

Decision-making can be a significant drain, but think of it more like a faucet.

We can control how much mental energy we pour into a decision through intentional practices that turn up or turn down the flow of cognitive capacity.

Let’s explore 3 intentional decision-making practices:

Decision-making strategy

Streamlining

Identity-based decision-making

Decision-making strategy

Deploying our cognitive capacity intentionally lets us preserve it for what matters.

Some decisions do, some do not.

The key is pairing an intentional decision-making strategy with the decision at hand.

Typically our approach to decision-making is determined by our

personal disposition,

state of mind and

mental wiring.

But with intentionality, we can do better than default.

We can decide in a way that optimizes for the situation and deploys our cognitive capacity strategically, not reactively.

Satisficing Strategy

This is a strategy of quick decision-making with the goal of “good enough”, not perfect.

Satisficing optimizes for efficiency by deferring to the available information:

🔸 Sticking to preferences

🔸 Deferring to the experts

🔸 Going with what you know.

It’s selecting what you read or watch based on the bestseller or “most watched” lists.

It’s asking people who have done it before what you should do and then doing it.

It’s ordering what you always order from the restaurant you always go to.

No hassle.

Box checked.

Quick decision.

Minimal cognitive capacity utilized.

Satisficing is an ideal strategy when:

✔️ the decision isn’t critical

✔️ the consequences are minimal

✔️ the outcome is easily reversible.

Maximizing Strategy

This is a strategy of making a fully-informed, situationally-optimized decision.

Maximizing involves

🔸 pros and cons

🔸 narrowing down

🔸 evaluating alternatives

🔸 considering all variables

🔸 gathering new information

🔸 comparing and contrasting

🔸 weighing every possible option

A lot more cognitive capacity is utilized with this strategy so it is ideal for decisions that have higher stakes and merit deeper consideration:

Should we get married?

Which house should we buy?

Should I accept this job offer?

Is this the right investor for us?

Do I want to have another baby?

Which school should I send my kids to?

Should I co-found a business with this person?

A Hybrid Approach

The two approaches are not mutually exclusive.

We can intentionally decide how to deploy them — when to preserve cognitive capacity and when to invest it.

For big decisions that merit deep consideration and need to be made quickly, combining the strategies in sequence is ideal.

Use Satisficing to quickly narrow the universe of options and then go deeper with Maximizing into a comparative analysis of the short list and final selection.

My approach to choosing a sleepaway camp for my boys last summer is an illustrative example:

We were late to the process and had to move quickly.

The first phase of my approach was satisficing. I used the information at hand (with the help of a consultant) to narrow the choice set based on high-level decision criteria:

Had to be coed
Had to be East of the Mississippi River
Had to have a 2-week / first-timer program
Had to be a mainstream camp willing and able to support a neurodivergent kiddo

Using those decision parameters, I satisficed down to a handful of options.

In the second phase, I maximized the crap out of evaluating the remaining options. I am particularly particular (some argue a little nuts) about who I leave my boys with, so I:

Spoke with the directors
Asked a heck of a lot of questions
Requested they do a call with one of our specialists
Asked for an intro to a returning family with same-aged kids

Then I deliberated over the increasingly short list of options until I landed on The One.

Using this hybrid approach I was able to get to a short-list of options at lightning speed with minimal brain drain, preserving time and mental energy for the final decision.

And because of the intentionality with which I approached what felt like a huge decision, we felt great about the camp we selected and the boys had a life-changing experience.

Streamlining

The human brain wasn’t built to support the number of decisions or volume of options we are faced with on a daily basis.

For most of human history our life path was largely predetermined by the circumstances we were born into. Available technology, to the extent it even existed, simply did not support a ton of optionality.

The concept of “choice overload” was introduced by Alvin Toffler in 1970 to describe the overwhelm people were experiencing in the face of so many choices.

NINETEEN SEVENTY y’all.

Pre-many of us and alllllll the things that we have to choose among 50+ years later.

If it was an issue then, imagine how overloaded we are now.

Actually, you don’t have to imagine, you’re living it.

The universe of possibilities now is endless for

what we know

what we want

where we are

who we date

how we live.

In many respects, this feels like a good thing:

🌟 autonomy

🌟 freedom

🌟 agency

🌟 choice.

In reality, the net effect is not so clear.

In his 2004 book, The Paradox of Choice, Barry Schwartz makes the case that having too many options:

🔹 increases the cognitive burden of our decision processes

🔹 decreases our satisfaction with the choices we make

🔹 increases the likelihood of regretting our choices

🔹 negatively impacts our emotions

🔹 leads to worse outcomes.

Uff.

He described “decision fatigue” as a phenomenon wherein the quality of our decisions is eroded with every decision we make, in large part because we draw down on an ever-shrinking well of cognitive capacity with each successive decision.

The more options we have to decide among, the more the decision depletes us, even if it is a completely trivial decision.

Decision fatigue can lead to

⛔ burnout

⛔ avoidance

⛔ impulsivity

⛔ self-sabotage

⛔ counterproductive outcomes

Intentional strategies to streamline decision-making help stave off decision fatigue and preserve cognitive capacity for all the other stuff we need to do with our brains.

The idea is to:

✔️ minimize the number of decisions

✔️ narrow the choice set

✔️ plan ahead.

🍽️ Meal planning

Cut down on daily decisions by choosing your meals in advance.

Bonus: Advance planning leads to a healthier diet because deciding what to eat at the end of a long day full of decisions leads to worse choices.

📝 Checklists

Repeatable events lend themselves to checklists that cut down on recurring decisions and preserve cognitive capacity.

If your family is like ours, there are multiple activities to prep for on any given day, many with required wardrobe changes.

Developing a checklist of what is needed for each kid on those busy days means you only have to think about it once. 🙌

The next time Thursday rolls around, you won’t have to allocate brain cells trying to remember what the little one needs for soccer and the big one needs for tennis. You’ve got your list. Check!

I also use checklists for big lifts that only come up once in awhile so I don’t have to rethink my approach every time.

I have a Thanksgiving prep checklist,

a camping trip checklist,

a road trip checklist…

Why rethink it if it works?!

🔄 Routines

I’m not suggesting you turn your entire life into a routine — that would get stale real fast.

But there are certain things you have to - or want to - do every day/week. Might as well get into a rhythm and calendar it.

A chore schedule, workout schedule, drop off/pickup schedule developed in advance takes the guess work and cognitive burden out of these every day things.

So do your overloaded brain and future self a favor and lean into a routine.

Bonus: Routinizing and calendaring your aspirational habits — like daily exercise — significantly increases the likelihood they’ll stick. Double win.

👗 Wardrobe selection

Ever look at a giant menu and felt paralyzed with indecision?

Have you also had that experience looking at your closet? 👀

Narrowing down the universe of options is a great way to preserve cognitive capacity.

President Obama embraced this strategy to an extreme during his time in the White House, famously narrowing his wardrobe to two suit colors so that he wouldn’t expend cognitive capacity deciding what to wear. As he explained to Vanity Fair in 2012

“You’ll see I wear only gray or blue suits. … I’m trying to pare down decisions. I don’t want to make decisions about what I’m eating or wearing because I have too many other decisions to make… You need to focus your decision-making energy. You need to routinize yourself. You can’t be going through the day distracted by trivia.”

If this feels too restrictive for your non-presidential existence, a capsule wardrobe comprised of a minimalist set of interchangeable options might be a more realistic move.

Even less restrictive: simply pick out your outfit the night before when your brain is depleted anyway instead of starting your day with a deliberation that draws down on fresh cognitive capacity for something that is ultimately (big picture) trivial.

Identity-based Decision-Making

Our final strategy to reduce the cognitive burden of daily decision-making is to use decision heuristics that defer to your goals and the you you want to be.

Heuristics are mental shortcuts that simplify decision-making by applying (and even automating) rules of engagement you’ve committed to in advance.

By leveraging mental shortcuts, you can make decisions with less cognitive capacity and align your decisions with your aspirational identity.

🔮 Future Self

This approach takes Current You out of a decision-making role altogether.

You simply do what you know your aspirational persona would do.

Let’s say you aspire to be a Daily Reader. You sit down on the couch at the end of the night. Instead of debating what to do next, you defer to your desired self. What would Daily Reader Me do right now? She would read. Decision made.

You’re at dinner with friends and you desire to be a Healthy Eater. Instead of pouring over the menu, agonizing over what to get, ask yourself: “what would Healthy Eater Me order?” Oh, the salmon. Done.

👎👍 Decision Binaries

Decision binaries are yes/no questions that ladder to a clear goal you’ve committed to in advance.

Any decision that needs to be made is deferred to that “top goal”.

A classic example of this strategy in action is from Britain’s Olympic 8+ Rowing Team.

The country had not won a gold medal in the event since 1912. Quite a slump.

The team's top goal was to medal in the 2000 Olympics.

Nothing mattered to them as much as that goal.

Nothing was placed above it.

Every decision made by that team was deferred to a decision binary:

Will it make the boat go faster?

If yes, do it. If no, don’t.

Zero cognitive drain.

Zero deliberation.

Gold medal win.

I believe I’ve made my point. 😉

There are only so many decisions we can make well in a day.

As decision fatigue sets in, the brain defaults to its own (non-intentional) shortcuts, leading to clunky decision-making and sub-optimal outcomes.

The decisions we set ourselves up to make and how we make them matters.

Applying these intentional shortcuts and strategies to preserve cognitive capacity

💫 minimizes decision fatigue

💫 improves outcomes

💫 prevents burnout

Talk about a no-brainer decision. 🙌

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Citations:

https://thedecisionlab.com/biases/decision-fatigue

https://thedecisionlab.com/biases/choice-overload-bias

https://medium.com/@benjaminhardy/this-1-powerful-strategy-made-the-british-rowing-team-to-go-from-average-to-winning-olympic-gold-b859b7f6cda1