Have you ever had a decision sitting in the back of your mind for days, sometimes weeks, that you know you need to make?
Maybe it is a performance issue with someone in your team. A conversation you need to have. A decision about priorities. Someone who needs more responsibility. Someone who needs less. A piece of work you need to stop. A change you know your team needs to make.
You think about it on the way to work. It pops into your head during another meeting. You rehearse the conversation while you are making dinner. You decide you will deal with it tomorrow, then tomorrow gets busy and it gets pushed back again.
Carrying unresolved decisions can be tiring.
There is some interesting psychology behind this. Research by E.J. Masicampo and Roy Baumeister found that unfulfilled goals can remain cognitively active and interfere with our ability to focus on unrelated tasks. Something we haven’t resolved can continue occupying mental capacity while we are doing something completely different. Their research also found that creating a specific plan for dealing with an unfinished goal could reduce that cognitive interference.
More recent workplace research reinforces this. A 2026 meta analysis found that unfinished work was associated with increased work related thinking during time away from work, particularly rumination.
This matters for managers because there is usually a lot to carry.
You are thinking about your own work and the work of your team. You are balancing competing priorities, responding to your manager, managing stakeholders, solving problems and making decisions about people. Add a few unresolved issues into that mix and they can continue taking up valuable thinking space.
Some decisions genuinely need time. You may need more information, advice from someone else or time to understand the implications. Giving an important decision proper consideration is part of good management.
It is also worth noticing when you have stopped gathering useful information and started going around in circles.
Perhaps ask yourself: What decision am I carrying that is now taking more energy than making it would?
Then get specific about what you need to move forward. Do you need one more piece of information? Do you need to speak with someone? Do you need advice? Do you need to put time in your diary to have the conversation? Or do you already know what needs to happen and need to commit to doing it?
This becomes particularly important when you are leading change. Your team is often waiting for clarity from you about what is happening, what matters, what needs to change and what they need to do next. Working through your own unresolved decisions gives you greater capacity to provide that clarity.
Unresolved decisions take up cognitive space and energy. As a manager, there will always be plenty of decisions competing for both.
It is worth paying attention to the ones you have been carrying for too long.
What decision are you carrying that needs to move?
Sometimes clarity doesn’t come from thinking about a decision for longer. It comes from identifying what you need to move forward and taking the next step.
Sources:
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Masicampo, E. J., & Baumeister, R. F. (2011). Consider It Done! Plan Making Can Eliminate the Cognitive Effects of Unfulfilled Goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 101(4), 667–683.
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Wendsche, J., Weigelt, O., & Syrek, C. J. (2026). Unfinished work tasks and work-related thoughts during off-job time: Meta-analysis of the Zeigarnik effect in a work-recovery context. Anxiety, Stress, & Coping, 39(4), 385–407.
