Decision Fatigue – Why Doing Less Helps You Do More

Most teams don’t fail because they make bad decisions.
They fail because they take too long to make any.

When every option looks important, every choice becomes painful.
And while they debate, delivery slows to a crawl.

The Navy SEALs say, “Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast.”
Mine’s simpler: Less is focus, and focus is delivery.

⸻

In teams, decision fatigue usually looks like chaos disguised as prioritisation.

Every day they’re asked to balance new features, bug fixes, support, environment work — plus the inevitable Drive-Bys that appear from nowhere.

Trying to force all that into one ranked list doesn’t make sense. You can’t compare a login feature to a database migration.

Split it instead:
• Use a prioritisation policy within each stream.
• Use a selection policy to decide how much of each stream you take on at once.

It’s simple, but it stops teams spinning on decisions that can’t be made sensibly.

You can see more about the Selection vs Prioritisation idea I mentioned here:

👉 The Prioritisation Trap: Why Trying to Rank Everything is a Mistake

⸻

For individuals, it’s the same trap — too many choices, not enough progress.

Ask yourself: How many things can I finish today?
Limit your work in progress.

You can use frameworks and models like MoSCoW, Cost of Delay, or Weighted Shortest Job First if they help —
but what you really need is something simple and deliberate to cut the noise and bring the focus.

Remember: Less is focus, and focus is delivery.

If you want delivery, choose less.

And here’s the best bit — you already know which two things to pick.
You’ve just never been forced to choose before.

Try it. Look at your to-do list and decide which are the two most important.
You might not even consciously know why, but I bet you make a good decision.
Even if it’s not the best one, at least you’re doing — and that’s better than just thinking about doing.

⸻

And yes, you’re right — you can combine both of these.
Because teams are made up of people.
If the individuals aren’t focused, the team won’t be either.

It’s exactly the kind of thing I explore through Agile Second Opinion — helping reset culture and get delivery moving again. (See comments for details.)