A colleague needs approval. A customer issue has escalated. There’s a budget to review and a difficult conversation you’ve been putting off. Before you reach the work you planned to do, you’ve already made dozens of choices.

For leaders, this can become a familiar pattern. Your day fills with questions, and the space to consider each one shrinks.

Decision fatigue describes the experience of finding choices increasingly effortful. You might notice yourself postponing a decision, looking for more reassurance than usual or settling on an option simply to clear it from your list.

When that happens, it helps to look beyond the individual decision and examine the working conditions around it.

Why does everything need your approval?

One useful starting point is to review what reaches your desk.

In growing organisations, approval processes often develop informally. Someone checks a decision with you once, then continues checking similar decisions because that has become the accepted routine.

Over time, you can become the approval point for work others can handle.

Look back over a typical week and ask:

• Which decisions required my experience or authority?
• Which came to me because responsibilities were unclear?
• Which could someone else have made with better information?

The answers can reveal opportunities to improve how work moves through the team.

Give people a clear basis for making decisions

Telling someone to “use your judgement” may leave them uncertain about what they are allowed to do.

Make the boundaries specific. For example, a team member handling customer complaints might need to know the refund amount they can authorise, the circumstances that require escalation and where to record their decision.

Agree how you will review outcomes together. This gives people a way to learn without feeling they must seek permission at every step.

Delegation works better when responsibility comes with enough context to act.

Define the question before discussing the answer

Some decisions become exhausting because the question keeps expanding.

A discussion about replacing a supplier can drift into pricing, service standards, internal processes and next year’s strategy. All may deserve attention, but trying to resolve them together makes progress difficult.

Write the immediate decision as a single question:

“Do we renew this supplier for the next six months?”

Then identify the criteria that will guide the answer. These might include cost, reliability, service quality and the practical consequences of switching. A defined question helps everyone understand what must be resolved now and what can be considered separately.

Decide what information is enough

Waiting for complete certainty can keep a decision open indefinitely.

Before requesting another report or arranging another meeting, identify what you still need to know. Ask whether the missing information could realistically change your choice.

For example, if you are considering a small pilot project, you may need an agreed budget, an owner and a way to assess results. You may be able to learn the rest through the pilot itself.

For decisions with significant consequences, allow time for appropriate scrutiny and specialist advice. Match the depth of the review to what is at stake.

Close the loop after making a choice

A decision can continue occupying your attention when the next steps remain vague.

Once you have decided, record:

• What has been agreed.
• Who will take action.
• When the action is due.
• What would justify reviewing the decision.

This is particularly useful when several people are involved. A short written record reduces the chance of reopening the same discussion because everyone remembers it differently.

It also gives you a clear point at which to move your attention elsewhere.

Notice when the workload needs to change

Personal habits can help, but they have limits. If your working day consistently demands more attention than you can give it, the workload itself needs examining.

Repeated delays, constant escalation and an overflowing approval queue may indicate a need for clearer roles, fewer competing priorities or additional support.

Bring those patterns into planning conversations. Be specific about where decisions are getting stuck and what that means for the team.

Choose one change to make this week

You do not need to redesign your entire working day at once.

Start with one recurring decision. Clarify who owns it, agree the information needed and establish when it should be escalated. Review how that works before moving on to the next.

Creating a more manageable decision-making process takes deliberate attention. Each improvement can give you and your team more room to focus on the work that needs your judgement.

Need space to think through the decisions on your desk? Leadership coaching can provide an opportunity to examine your approach, clarify priorities and identify practical changes. Get in touch to explore the support available.

Email: hello@hausofcoaching.com

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