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&lt;p&gt;Gah! If only I&#39;d waited until &lt;em&gt;after&lt;/em&gt; lunch to ask for that raise.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The New York Times&#39; &lt;em&gt;Economix&lt;/em&gt; blog points to an interesting study of parole judges in Israel, which found that they &quot;granted freedom about 65 percent of the time to the first prisoner who appeared before them on a given day. By the end of a morning session, the chance of release had dropped almost to zero.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The study also found that the pattern repeated itself in subsequent sessions: lenient release patterns for the first prisoner after a break, followed by a severe drop-off in the likelihood of release the longer the session went on.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;You&#39;re forgiven if you&#39;ve been looking around wondering if you&#39;ve stumbled onto the wrong blog. But relax: there is a career angle here—several, as it happens.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The key to the study: that &quot;making successive decisions depletes a limited mental facility, just like curling a dumbbell wears out your arms. As people get tired, they look for shortcuts, and one of the easiest shortcuts is to uphold the status quo –- in this case, denying parole.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h3&gt;Knowing when to ask&lt;/h3&gt;&lt;p&gt;One obvious career angle: the art of asking your boss for something—be it a raise, a promotion, or something else entirely. The clear lesson: you&#39;re much more likely to get the answer you&#39;re looking for when the person making the decision is well rested and operating on a full stomach.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h3&gt;Knowing yourself&lt;/h3&gt;&lt;p&gt;A second angle that may be more relevant on a day to day basis: consider how that tendency to get worn out making decisions could affect you over the course of a day. If your job involves making decisions that will change an organization for the better (which, presumably, is what we&#39;re all trying to achieve, every single day), then recognizing when you&#39;re most likely to agree to just keep doing things the way they&#39;ve always been done is an important asset.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Theoretically, it could inform how you structure your workday, on a very detailed level: making a policy to always tackle the hardest problems first thing in the morning; never agreeing to meetings right before lunch, or at times when you know you&#39;re prone to hunger or tiredness; scheduling tasks evenly throughout the day, with sufficient breaks in between to allow you to treat each one with equal care and attention.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;h3&gt;Getting the most out of others&lt;/h3&gt;&lt;p&gt;For those in a position to manage other people, the research also plays into understanding when—and under what conditions—you&#39;re likely to get the most out of your colleagues.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Of course, there&#39;s always a chance that your job entails nothing more than &quot;upholding the status quo.&quot; In that case, you&#39;ve probably got nothing to worry about—except finding a new job.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Economix:&lt;/strong&gt; Time and Judgement: A Study of Judges in Israel&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;--Phil Stott, Vault.com&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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