Decision Fatigue
Decision Fatigue is the deterioration of decision-making quality after making many decisions consecutively. First documented by Roy Baumeister and colleagues in the late 1990s, this mental model explains why judges grant more paroles after meals, why shoppers buy more junk food at night, and why CEOs wear the same clothes daily. Understanding Decision Fatigue allows individuals to structure their days around peak decision-making capacity and organizations to design processes that protect their teams from cognitive exhaustion.