Reducing decision load in long crises

Every decision needs attention: you have to see the options, weigh them up and commit. In a crisis a great many such decisions pile up, often under time pressure and with incomplete information. On top of that come tiredness, hunger and worries, which make careful weighing even harder.

Anyone who is overloaded tends either to decide too hastily or to put everything off. Both can be unhelpful in a crisis. What helps is simple: what has been settled in advance does not need to be decided again in an emergency. This leaves capacity for the genuinely new questions.

Routines: settle recurring things once – mealtimes, water ration, news times, device charging times. Then nobody has to negotiate them anew every day. This saves not only strength but also arguments about small things.

Trigger points: decide calmly in advance which signs trigger action, for example: “If the water rises to the garden wall, we leave.” Such agreements prevent hesitating and debating at the decisive moment. Official orders always apply, even if your own trigger point has not yet been reached.

Share out and choose the timing: divide responsibilities (food, children, information, technology) so that not every question lands with one person. Put big, non-urgent decisions into rested moments, such as after sleep and food. And for small matters: the first reasonable solution is “good enough” – searching for the perfect one costs more than it brings.

Take a quiet evening and write down which decisions would keep coming up in a crisis. Settle each of them briefly and write the result on paper that everyone can see – on the fridge, for example. A short morning round in which the day is discussed prevents new questions from popping up all the time.

For family carers this is especially important. Writing down fixed routines for medication and meals and arranging cover makes sure that not everything depends on one person – and that someone can take over if that person drops out.

Rules are tools, not laws. Rigid rules can overlook new situations. So review them regularly, for example once a day: does this still fit? Has the situation changed?

Safety-relevant decisions – driving, handling gas appliances, an evacuation – should not be made alone and exhausted. If possible, have a second person double-check. Important decisions in the middle of the night are particularly error-prone; if it is not urgent, wait until after sleeping.

In acute danger there is no time for long deliberation. Then fixed priorities apply: get to safety, call the local emergency number (112 in the EU), follow the emergency services’ instructions. In a group, also keep an eye on the person who makes most of the decisions: if they become irritable, indecisive or make mistakes, it is time to relieve them and let them sleep.

Official guides such as Ready.gov “Make A Plan” recommend making and discussing emergency plans in advance so that less has to be improvised in an emergency. Fields such as aviation and medicine also use checklists so that important steps are not forgotten under stress.

Research on so-called “decision fatigue” is scientifically debated – it is not settled whether the effect exists in the form often described. The practical recommendations here do not depend on it, though: routines, planning ahead, sharing tasks and sleep make sense in long crises anyway.