I’d like you to imagine something for a moment. An entrepreneur and founder of an extremely successful startup needs to make an important decision. After all their hard work, a large multinational has offered them a lot of money for it. They need a quick response though, so the entrepreneur has to quickly decide what’s best for them and their company.

Let’s use this example to explore three easy things that can influence decisions.

For our entrepreneur, it’s essentially a choice between an instant reward or a long-term struggle that could yield even greater results over time. There are also some ethical issues here, as the entrepreneur’s loyal workforce, who have been with them from the start, may not be part of the bigger company’s plans.

This is all important, as there are times when you literally won’t be in the right frame of mind to make the best, or most ethical, decisions. Quite often, your own body may be impeding your judgement and you probably won’t realise it. Here are three easy things you should consider if you want to make the right decision.

Decision fatigue

You’d be surprised at how your decisions could vary depending on the time of day you make them. An Israeli study of judicial decisions found that judges were far more likely to make lenient decisions at the start of the day and after a scheduled lunch break.

The study focussed on over 1000 rulings by eight judges in 2009 that preceded over parole hearings. It found that the probability of a prisoner being granted parole declined from around 65% at the start of the day, to around almost zero as time went on. This was effectively reset after a lunch break though.

You may be surprised to find out that this is all likely to be related to the amount of glucose in the judges bodies at the time they made those decisions. This is our natural fuel source and it directly influences the amount of willpower we have available to resist those negative, natural urges to cut corners. In this example, when the judges had rested and eaten their ‘energy bar’ was effectively topped up

We all have different amounts of willpower that gradually depletes as we go through the day.

In this case, it would really help our entrepreneur if he was aware of this. It’s clearly better to avoid making decisions when your willpower is depleted if you can. This is also the reason people end up with lots of expensive items they don’t really need when they’re out shopping at the wrong time.

If I was in this position, I would try to make as few decisions as I could throughout the day. In fact, this is the reason why some top executives, like Mark Zuckerberg, always wear the same clothes every morning to avoid making unnecessary decisions that deplete their willpower early on.

It would also help our entrepreneur if he had a decent lunch break that day.

Sleep deprivation

Most people don’t realise how much a lack of sleep can impair them. The worst thing about this is that you simply won’t realise how much your performance is affected when you’re tired.

I know that there are a lot of myths about sleep and that some people can function perfectly with as little as five or six hours a night. Like the situation with willpower though, we’re all different and all need varying amounts to stay at the top of our game. It’s fair to say that for most people, consistent nights of less than seven hours of sleep will really start to affect us.

If we don’t get enough sleep, decision making will be impaired, the brain will literally shift into an almost dream state for split seconds and to top it off, we’re sure to be grouchy and miserable. It can almost be as bad as being drunk in some cases.

Would you take two swift shots of tequila before making an important decision like this? I don’t think so.

When it comes to our entrepreneur, just being aware of this will really make a difference in this situation. Even if it’s not possible to get a great night’s sleep before something important, it helps to know when you may not be at your best. There may also be an option to delay things, or perhaps even take a nap at some point during the day.

Ego depletion

We’ve all seen those famous cases when someone does something awful that’s completely out of character. This could be a politician who is very publicly caught out cheating on their partner, to the CEO who fudges important data that was sure to be spotted at some point.

There’s more to people simply being careless, stupid and irresponsible in a lot of these cases though, as something called ‘ego depletion’ is often behind it. Remember that finite supply of willpower, well I’m afraid it isn’t something that magically gets fully restored.

If we’re constantly required to make important, and often stressful, decisions it’s going to take its toll. This is why people who are in trusted positions often do things that can shatter that confidence forever if they don’t look after themselves.

If our willpower is depleted, we will have far less chance of resisting those harmful temptations that keep popping into our heads.

If our entrepreneur is in this position, he could easily make a decision he and his workforce will bitterly regret in future. The balance between right and wrong could be tipped in a dark direction if he’s presented with a tempting opportunity at the wrong time.

Like the other two cases, just being aware of the dangers of ego depletion can make a huge difference.

In case you were wondering, none of this excuses bad, unlawful and immoral decisions. We always have a choice and always need to do our best to avoid being in a situation where we’re a little more vulnerable than normal.

Now we’ve explored these three critical factors, our entrepreneur can hopefully make a decent decision. I hope you now see how things going on in our body can influence decisions and how important it is to understand willpower.

I’m sure you’ll agree that a decision based on experience, a well developed ‘gut’ instinct and a careful assessment of the facts and figures is far more beneficial. You don’t have to be an entrepreneur or CEO deciding the fate of your workforce to benefit from these ideas though, as you really need to think about these three easy things all the time.

It’s so important to remember that we have a natural energy bar and we’re unlikely to be aware of those times when we’re vulnerable. This isn’t just something we need to think about at work either, as it can really make a difference when it comes to mental health.

There are times when we will simply think and feel differently because of what’s going on in our bodies. If we’re aware of this, we’re likely to go a lot easier on ourselves.

Good luck, I hope this helps and please remember me when you make that big decision.