Happy Wednesday, founders,

Every morning at 10:05 a.m., I receive a daily growth report across our newsletters. That’s my little pocket of joy.

This is the 12th week since we pivoted this newsletter away from curating tech news, and it’s been a ride. We saw an initial dip in subscribers, but click-throughs and engagement went up. And just last week, subscriber growth started steadily climbing again.

But at night, my brain refuses to shut down. Should we reinvest in content or sales? Build community through events? Double down on social growth?

Between scaling a company and relocating my entire family, I feel like I’m being pulled in ten directions at once. There’s no lack of excitement - but today, I can’t move. Decision fatigue has wrapped its fingers around me and stalled everything.

So… let’s talk about it: Decision Fatigue. What it is, how it shows up in founders, and what we can actually do about it.

Coined by social psychologist Roy Baumeister, decision fatigue refers to the mental depletion that occurs after making many decisions in succession, as your cognitive resources wear down, your ability to weigh options and resist impulse declines. You might start avoiding decisions altogether, or worse, making bad ones.

Baumeister’s research, inspired by Freud’s long-forgotten theory that mental energy is finite, showed that willpower functions like a muscle: the more we use it, the more it tires. In one study, participants who resisted tempting snacks gave up faster on problem-solving tasks. In another study, those who had to make repeated consumer choices later showed worse performance on tasks requiring mental control. Each act of self-discipline draws from the same limited reservoir. The more decisions we make, the more depleted we become - and the less capable we are of making thoughtful ones.

One study found that Israeli judges were more likely to grant parole in the morning than in the afternoon - after hours of decision-making, they defaulted to “no” simply because it was mentally easier (Danziger et al., 2011).

But how do you know if you’re experiencing it?

A study by Vohs et al. (2008) in The Journal of Consumer Research found that participants who engaged in repeated decision-making showed reduced persistence and self-control on subsequent tasks - signs of depleted mental resources. Decision fatigue can manifest as brain fog, impulsivity, or avoidance altogether. You might feel like even small tasks - replying to a message, choosing what to eat - become strangely overwhelming.

As cognitive load builds, so does decision fatigue - it’s not unlike sensory overload, which I wrote about recently (and many of you told me was a favorite - read it here).

As founders, our job is decision-making. That makes us particularly vulnerable.

Most founders unconsciously assume they need to be “on” all day, every day. But without managing mental load, our judgment erodes. This is when we:

And the problem is: fatigue disguises itself as logic. We think we’re making good decisions - we’re just making fast ones.

To outsmart fatigue, we can borrow a tool from behavioural economics: Choice Architecture.

Popularised by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein in their book Nudge, choice architecture is the practice of designing environments that make good decisions easier, faster, and less mentally taxing.

In an experiment at Massachusetts General Hospital, physician Anne Thorndike set out to change eating habits without saying a word.

Instead of urging people to make healthier choices, she redesigned the cafeteria. Originally, soda was the only drink near the registers. Thorndike’s team added bottled water - into those fridges and at food stations across the room. Soda wasn’t removed, just rebalanced.

The result? In three months, soda sales dropped by 11.4%. Bottled water jumped 25.8%. All without a single sign or campaign.

This is choice architecture in action: people often choose not based on preference, but on proximity. We eat what’s in front of us. We respond to what’s easiest to reach.

Environment is the invisible force shaping behavior. And often, real change starts not in our willpower, but in creating systems that serve our minds.

🧭 1. Use “If–Then” Decision Scripts

Borrowed from behavioral psychology, implementation intentions reduce cognitive strain by preloading decisions.

→ “If I feel overwhelmed mid-day, then I’ll switch to a low-cognition task like clearing emails or walking.”

It bypasses willpower and turns friction points into habits.

📅 2. Assign a “Decision Day”

Not every decision is urgent - batching non-urgent choices (like contractor offers, vendor tools, travel planning) to a set day (e.g. Thursdays) reduces ongoing deliberation loops. Your brain relaxes knowing, “I’ll revisit this on Decision Day.”

🧠 3. Flip from “Should I?” to “What would future me thank me for?”

This shift engages episodic future thinking, which research shows enhances long-term decision-making by reducing emotional impulsivity. It also removes binary thinking (yes/no) and reframes in values.

🧊 4. Use Cold Cognition Triggers

Hot decisions (made in emotional states) tend to drain energy. “Cold cognition” means neutral, reflective thinking. Create environmental triggers that cue cold states - e.g., decide strategic matters while walking, journaling, or after a short nap.

🛠️ 5.Pre-Build “Anti-Burnout Stacks”

Instead of waiting to crash, design mini-routines that restore clarity after decision fatigue:

🧾 6. Create a “Could Wait” Parking Lot

Keep a visible doc where non-urgent decisions live. Most don’t require immediate answers — they just need a home outside your brain. Revisit weekly. You’ll be shocked how many resolve on their own or become irrelevant.

In entrepreneurship, clarity is a competitive advantage. Fatigue blurs it.

Designing your days like a good choice architect makes you wise.

Because the truth is: even the most visionary founders are human. And your best decisions come from an unclouded mind.

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Yours in conscious leadership,
Lavena

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