We often think our time disappears because we have too much to do. But a surprising amount of our week is spent deciding what to do, how to do it, and whether we are doing it right. Decision fatigue is not just a mental strain, it is a measurable time leak that slows execution, increases meetings, and creates rework when choices are made late or made poorly. AI becomes valuable here not because it replaces our judgment, but because it reduces the cost of getting to judgment. When we shrink time-to-decision, we shrink cycle time for everything that depends on that decision. ------------- Context: The Hidden Hours Lost to Indecision ------------- Most teams do not track decision time, but we feel it. We feel it when a project is “waiting on alignment.” We feel it when a draft sits in review because no one wants to be the one to approve it. We feel it when we keep collecting input because we are not sure we have enough. Indecision shows up as meeting gravity. We schedule a call to decide, then we schedule another because someone was missing, then a third because we need more context. Each meeting takes 30 minutes, but the hidden cost is closer to 90 minutes when we include prep, follow-up, and context switching recovery. It also shows up as “option sprawl.” We brainstorm ten ideas, open ten tabs, create ten partial drafts, and end the day with more fragments than we started with. That feels like progress, but it is actually cognitive debt. The debt must be paid later when we consolidate and choose. Another common pattern is the “late decision penalty.” We delay a choice about audience, pricing, priority, or scope, and keep building anyway. Then the decision finally arrives, and we discover half the work was aimed at the wrong target. That is rework, and rework is time lost twice, first in building, then in rebuilding. Decision fatigue is especially brutal because it compounds. The more small decisions we make, the slower we become at making the next one. We start defaulting to the familiar, or we avoid deciding at all. That is how weeks get filled with activity but starved of forward motion.

This week, I break down some huge updates to Claude that, combined with the introduction of ads in ChatGPT, make Claude the best AI if you're on a free plan. Plus, I cover the barrage of OpenAI news and releases, discusses the evolution of the "OpenClaw" movement, and more. Enjoy!

Not whether you have them. Not whether they’re fair. Just how fast you move toward them. Every time you deal with something right away, your capacity grows. You trust yourself more. You stop carrying the mental weight. You get stronger without even realizing it. Every time you delay, it gets heavier. It takes more energy. It starts to feel bigger than it actually is. Over time, that difference compounds. Solving small problems quickly builds confidence. Solving bigger ones consistently builds identity. And that capacity — the ability to handle hard things without hesitation — is what actually allows you to build something great. What’s one thing you know you need to face this week instead of pushing it off?