Latest / New Manager Conversations with Fexingo: First 90 Days, Managing Former Peers, and Leadership Basics / How New Managers Can Handle Decision Fatigue
Transcript
- Lucas: There's a well-known 2011 study of Israeli judges that I think about a lot. The researchers looked at over a thousand parole decisions and found that judges granted parole about 65 percent of the time right after a food break, and that number dropped to nearly zero just before the break. Same judges, same laws, same prisoners. The only variable was how long they'd been making decisions. Luna: Right, that's the classic ego depletion study. And if judges with decades of experience can't sustain good judgment for more than two hours, what hope do we have? Lucas: Exactly. And that's the angle I want to drill into today. Because for new managers, this isn't just an interesting piece of psychology. It's a daily operational reality. You go from being an individual contributor who maybe made 10 to 15 substantive decisions a day to a manager who fields 40, 50, 60 decisions — some tiny, some high-stakes — and each one draws down the same mental account. Luna: And the consequences of a bad decision feel bigger, too. When you're an IC, a bad call might set you back a day. As a manager, it can erode trust with a team member or send a project off course for weeks. Lucas: Right. So the question is: What can a new manager actually do to protect their decision-making bandwidth? I want to walk through three tactics that I've seen work, but let me start with the one I think is most counterintuitive, which is to schedule fewer decisions, not just manage them better. Luna: Meaning, batch the low-stakes stuff into one block so you're not switching contexts all day? Lucas: Exactly. But also, be ruthless about which decisions you even need to make. There's a framework I like called the 'two-list system.' You literally write down every decision you made yesterday. Then you sort them into two lists: ones only you could make, and ones someone else could have made. Most managers, especially new ones, find that 30 to 40 percent of their decisions fall into the second bucket. Luna: And that's where delegation becomes a cognitive strategy, not just a time management one. Because every decision you offload isn't just saving you 30 seconds. It's preserving a unit of mental energy for the calls that actually matter. Lucas: Yeah. And I think there's a subtlety here that often gets missed. New managers worry that delegating a decision is abdicating responsibility. But actually, if you delegate a decision with clear guardrails — 'you decide the vendor for this project, but the budget stays under 5,000' — you're still accountable for the outcome. You're just not burning your own bandwidth on the process. Luna: You're also building trust. Your team gets to practice making decisions. And if they make a bad one, that's a coaching moment, not a failure. That's how they grow. Lucas: Right. And that leads to the second tactic, which is about structuring your day around your decision energy. The judges study shows that decision quality drops steadily over a session. So if you have to make a big call — a hire, a budget allocation, a strategic pivot — do it first thing in the morning, or right after lunch, when your mental tank is full. Luna: I'll push back on that a little. Because a lot of new managers don't control their own calendars. Their days are chopped up by status meetings, one-on-ones, and Slack fire drills. So even if they want to schedule a decision block, the structure of their role fights them. Lucas: That's a fair point. And I think the answer is that you have to fight back. If you're a new manager and your calendar is a checkerboard of 30-minute slots, you will default to reactive decision-making. You need at least one 90-minute block per day that is sacrosanct — no meetings, no Slack, no email. You use that block for the decisions that require deep thought. And you tell your team why it exists. You say, 'This is when I do my best thinking. If there's a real emergency, call me. Otherwise, I'll respond when the block ends.' Luna: And you have to model that behaviour too. If you say 'my deep work block is inviolable' but then accept a meeting in it because your boss asks, your team sees that it's optional. Lucas: Totally. And that brings me to the third tactic, which is about managing the input stream. Most decision fatigue doesn't come from the big decisions. It comes from the death by a thousand pings. Every Slack notification, every cc'd email, every 'hey, quick question' is a decision, even if the decision is just 'ignore this for now.' Luna: And ignoring it is still a decision. So you're spending energy even when you're not acting. Lucas: Right. So one concrete fix is to batch your Slack and email. Check them three times a day — morning, after lunch, end of day — and leave the rest of the time closed. I know that sounds radical, but the research on multitasking is clear: every time you context-switch, it takes 23 minutes to get back to full focus. So those 15 'quick checks' per day are not free; they cost you hours of deep work. Luna: I buy that for email, but Slack is trickier because your team expects real-time responses, especially from a new manager who's trying to prove they're accessible. Lucas: That's a real tension. And I think the way through it is to set explicit expectations. You tell your team, 'I'm committing to checking Slack at the top of each hour. If something is truly urgent, text me or call.' Most people will respect that. And the ones who don't — that's a coaching conversation about prioritization. Luna: That makes sense. Alright, so let me try to tie these together. The three tactics: first, use the two-list system to identify what only you can decide and delegate the rest. Second, protect a decision block for high-stakes calls. Third, batch your communication inputs so you're not context-switching all day. Lucas: That's exactly it. And I want to add one more thing, which is that this gets easier over time. The first few months as a manager, everything feels high-stakes because you're still learning. As you gain pattern recognition, more decisions become routine. Your brain essentially creates decision shortcuts. So the goal isn't to eliminate fatigue entirely. It's to manage it so you don't make a bad call at 4 PM that you'd never make at 9 AM. Luna: Well, speaking of managing energy, we should mention something here. Lucas and I do this show because we believe these conversations are valuable, and we keep it ad-free intentionally. No sponsors, no ads, no interruption. If that's something you value and you want to support the choice, you can find us at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It's a simple way to say 'this helps,' and it truly does. Lucas: Yeah, we get notes from listeners who say the ad-free format lets them focus on the content, especially during a commute or a workout. That's exactly why we do it. So if it's been useful to you, that link is there. No pressure, just an option. Luna: Alright, back to decision fatigue. One thing I think is worth discussing: how do you know if you're suffering from it? What are the warning signs? Lucas: Great question. For me, the biggest red flag is when I start making decisions based on which option is easiest, not which is best. Like, I'll catch myself approving a budget line item just because I don't want to open the spreadsheet and dig into the details. That's a sign my tank is empty. Luna: Or when you say yes to a request just to end the conversation. I've done that. And then you regret it later. Lucas: Right. Another sign is irritability with small decisions. If you find yourself getting annoyed at having to choose what to eat for lunch or what color the team t-shirts should be, that's probably decision fatigue. You've used up your bandwidth on work stuff, and now the small stuff feels overwhelming. Luna: That's actually a good place to bring in a different study. There's research on grocery shopping that shows people who go to the store after work buy more junk food because they've depleted their decision-making energy on job decisions and now have less willpower to resist the candy aisle. Lucas: Ha. So the same mechanism that makes you a worse manager also makes you eat worse. That's a good reminder that this isn't just about productivity. It's about overall well-being. Luna: So what's your advice for a new manager who's already in the thick of it? They can't afford to take a day off to reset. They've got back to back meetings tomorrow. Lucas: Two things. First, start tomorrow by doing the two-list exercise for just your first three hours. Write down every decision you make from 9 to 12. At noon, look at the list and ask: which of these could I have delegated or deferred? Then try to do that in the afternoon. Second, pick one meeting tomorrow and give yourself permission to say 'I'll think about that and get back to you.' Just one decision deferred is a win. Luna: I like that. It's incremental. You don't have to overhaul your entire schedule overnight. Lucas: Exactly. And over time, these habits compound. You build a system that protects your judgment when it matters most. And honestly, that's one of the most underrated skills of a good manager. Not just being smart, but being able to be smart at the right time of day. Luna: That's a good closing note. Next episode, I want to talk about how to handle the first time you have to fire someone. That's a decision that definitely requires full bandwidth. Lucas: Absolutely. That's a heavy one. We'll dig into it next time.