An executive notices that afternoon decisions are becoming rushed and attributes the pattern to a daily depletion of willpower. That may sound plausible, but the afternoon also differs in other ways: meetings have accumulated, preparation is shorter and unresolved issues compete for attention.
Investigate the working conditions before settling on a single mechanism.
Compare similar decisions
Choose a recurring type of decision and record when it occurs, what preparation was available and what made it difficult. Avoid comparing a routine morning approval with a complex afternoon personnel issue.
Look for missing information, interruptions and changes in urgency. The time of day may matter, but it is not the only changing variable.
Improve the most exposed decisions
Provide the brief earlier, reduce avoidable context switching or move a review when the participants can prepare properly. Leave room to record the result before the next meeting.
If a decision cannot move, make the question and alternatives explicit. Ask what can be decided safely now and what requires more evidence.
Review the changes using rework, clarity and the quality of the reasoning. No study of another profession can establish that a particular afternoon choice resulted from prefrontal depletion. The practical task is to improve the conditions that the evidence shows are getting in the way.
