What is decision fatigue information?

Decision fatigue information is a concept in personal epistemology: Every piece of information needs a decision — act on it, store it, or discard it.

Example: You open your email and see 40 new messages. You read the first one — a request from a colleague — think 'I should reply to that,' and move to the next. You read a newsletter, think 'interesting,' and move on. You read a shipping notification, think 'okay,' and move on. Thirty minutes later you have read all 40 messages. None of them have been answered, filed, or deleted. You have consumed information without processing it. Tomorrow morning, you will re-read most of these messages and repeat the cycle. Processing would mean making a decision on each one the first time: reply now, schedule a reply, file for reference, or delete. Reading is not processing. Deciding is.

This concept is part of Phase 43 (Information Processing) in the How to Think curriculum, which builds the epistemic infrastructure for information processing.