Depleting Your Decision Making Capacity
January 2, 2009 by B J Keltz
A recent article on the Scientific American website caused me to do some thinking. The author of the article outlined research studies affecting a single brain function known as “executive function,” or our decision-making center. This area of our brain can become taxed and depleted after so many decisions are made. He also quoted an interesting SCIAM article from 2001, showing that multi-tasking actually hurts productivity instead of helping it (although the effects are dependent on the degree of concentration required for the tasks).
After reading the article, I just had to point it out to my spouse. He becomes irritated if I cannot tell him what I want for dinner or choose a restaurant, but now I have a reason why. I make hundreds of decisions each day at work and for my business. By the end of a busy day, I have no desire to make any more and, indeed, have a very limited capacity for doing so. Professor Amir explains it this way:
“The human mind is a remarkable device. Nevertheless, it is not without limits. Recently, a growing body of research has focused on a particular mental limitation, which has to do with our ability to use a mental trait known as executive function. When you focus on a specific task for an extended period of time or choose to eat a salad instead of a piece of cake, you are flexing your executive function muscles. Both thought processes require conscious effort-you have to resist the temptation to let your mind wander or to indulge in the sweet dessert. It turns out, however, that use of executive function–a talent we all rely on throughout the day–draws upon a single resource of limited capacity in the brain. When this resource is exhausted by one activity, our mental capacity may be severely hindered in another, seemingly unrelated activity.” Scientific American, “Tough Choices: How Decision-Making Tires Your Brain.” On Amir, Associate Professor of marketing at the Rady School of Management at the University of California at San Diego, July 22, 2008
What does this have to do with writing? Sometimes it has nothing to do with putting pen to paper. And sometimes it has a strong effect. Consider the “pre-writing” phase of a novel…the plotting and story arcs, character creation and chapter outlines. For writers who engage in pre-writing, this time is full of decisions to be made. If you are also making decisions in the rest of your life, it is possible, according to Professor Amir, that you are making decisions out of a diminished capacity for quality. For the thousands of us with day jobs, this might make the pre-writing stage a much longer effort than expected, or we might come to conclusions that don’t pan out well in the process.
The revision and editing stage of writing is also affected. Here, the writer makes many small decisions, rearranging sentences and words, deleting or adding text, reworking paragraphs, and checking for errors. To perform these functions with a “tired mind” might mean our work is not up to our usual standards, leading to multiple revisions of the same piece.
The article and the concept of executive function are the best argument I’ve found for early morning writing and writing early in the day if at all possible. However impractical it might seem, it appears to be the best way to reserve this depletable function for writing. The referenced article, which explains research on the diminished productivity of multi-tasking also comes to bear on the lives of free-lancers, who must juggle queries, families, schedules, and the business end of their careers while also writing.
Four experiments conducted using groups made up of between 12 and 36 participants revealed that switching between tasks )in this case, solving math problems and classifying geometric objects) takes time, thus lowering performance. The team also found that switching between complex tasks took significantly longer than switching between simple ones. In explanation, the researchers note that task switching seems to take place in two stages: goal shifting and rule activation. Rule activation alone can take several tenths of a second, which can add up when a person switches back and forth between tasks frequently. Scientific American “Multitasking May Diminish, Not Boost, Productivity,” Harold Franzen, August 7, 2001.
This sounds like a reasonable explanation for why we might write better on days we don’t work and write better in the mornings or before our workdays have begun.
The article goes on to explain that switching from deliberation to implementation (making a decision as opposed to merely thinking about one) depletes executive function. Even paying attention or focusing can deplete this function. “These findings have important real world implications. If making choices depletes executive resources, then “downstream” decisions might be affected adversely when we are forced to choose with a fatigued brain.”
Professor Amir concludes his article with:
“These experimental insights suggest that the brain works like a muscle: when depleted, it becomes less effective. Furthermore, we should take this knowledge into account when making decisions. If we’ve just spent lots of time focusing on a particular task, exercising self-control or even if we’ve just made lots of seemingly minor choices, then we probably shouldn’t try to make a major decision. These deleterious carryover effects from a tired brain may have a strong shaping effect on our lives.”
The article resonated with me as a writer because I can clearly see the effect a day full of decision making has on my ability to select topics and research sources for evening writing. Indeed, sometimes the simple decision about what to address seems too much. I’ve kept notes in my journal for a few weeks on this issue and have clear evidence of the effects on me personally.
This is not to say that writing in the evening cannot be done. Of course it can! However, it might go better if there is a break between the workday and the writing day so our mental muscle can relax and recover a bit.
The human mind is indeed a remarkable device. Knowing how it works and how we can help it, rather than hinder, might boost our productivity and quality as writers. At the very least, it will help one writer learn to select her topics and sources much earlier in the day.
