TIPS TO HELP LIMIT DECISION FATIGUE

DECISION FATIGUE

Do you ever have one of those days where you just can’t make one more decision? Something that might have seemed minor had it occurred in the morning can feel like it’s just too much to have to deal with. Decision fatigue is when we have trouble making a good decision, after a long day or period of decision making. Just like our bodies get worn out after a physically demanding day our brains can get worn out too.

When we have a day that requires us to make a lot of decisions our brains get tired out. Even minor decision-making that happens throughout the day can add to our likelihood of experiencing decision fatigue. There are some things that we make decisions about over and over again each day. If we can try to decide once on these things it can help to limit the number of decisions that we need to make each day.

WHAT TO WEAR

Personal uniforms, capsule wardrobes, or whatever they are called have become much more popular these days. The idea is to simplify your clothing. Then you do not have to take time each morning trying to figure out what to wear. I have found from simplifying my clothing that I know better what I love to wear. So, I never have those days where I don’t feel quite comfortable with what I chose to wear that day.

I do work from home 3 days a week, and when I do go into the office on the other days, the dress code has severely lightened up from what it was pre-COVID. So, there is definitely more flexibility in wearing clothes that are more comfortable. You can go really simple and wear pretty much the same type of thing each day – this is what I do.  It’s either black leggings or jeans and some type of comfortable sweatshirt or T-shirt in the summer. Or you can still have a larger variety of clothing and be more fashionable. The idea is to simplify what you have.  Maybe try to stick with a similar color palette so that things work together.

Limiting the decisions on what to wear has helped me to get rid of things that I didn’t really love. It’s just a waste of time and energy to constantly be moving those things out of the way. We usually reach for what you really like to wear anyway.

WHAT TO EAT

Of course, most of you know that I really love planning my meals. To me looking at my already completed meal plan in the morning to see what I am cooking that night makes my life so much easier. I used to get a lot of decision fatigue with meal planning though.  I would get so stressed out about mixing things up enough. At some point, I was listening to a podcast or watching youtube and whoever I was watching was using some type of meal rotation. It felt like I was given permission to make the same things on a regular basis.

When I started doing this it took so much stress out of creating the meal plan.  I still make new recipes when I want to and if I have time.  But, if I don’t want to, I still have a meal plan in place. Some people definitely don’t want to be so structured or repetitive in meal planning. The point is just to have some method of deciding what you will be having for dinner each night.  This is a decision that needs to be made daily.  So, if you can find a way to make that decision easier, it will give you a little extra brainpower for something else.

WHAT TO CLEAN

So, for some people, keeping their home clean comes naturally. This is not the case for me.  Not to say that I don’t keep our home generally pretty clean. It’s just that I stress out over the tasks that only occur on a periodic basis. I’m really good with the dishes, laundry, bathrooms, and all of the things that get done on a regular basis. But, when it comes to things like dusting the ceiling fan, cleaning windows, and washing curtains I over-analyze. I start thinking too much about how often something should be done and what should be done first. Instead of actually getting things done, I would spend time trying to make decisions about them.

Having a cleaning routine that works for you can help get rid of a lot of this decision-making. For example, I decided that on Wednesday I clean out the fridge. This is the day before grocery shopping so it makes sense to do it that day. I no longer look in the fridge and spend time thinking about when I will do it. There is no decision to be made anymore. If it’s Wednesday, I clean out the fridge. I used to love the fly lady system for managing a lot of my other cleaning tasks.  But, I had a lot of trouble with the app keeping track of what I needed to do. I often would fall behind and had no way to keep track of what needed to be done most urgently.

CLEANING APP

Recently, I got a new app that is set up in zones very similar to the fly lady system.  However, you can set up how often something needs to be done. When I am going to do some cleaning, I can look at the app and see what needs to be done most urgently by how past due it is. No more stressing out about what needs to be done. Whatever system works for you is fine, it’s just finding a way to not have to make too many decisions on what you will be cleaning on any given day.

AT WORK

Depending on the type of job you have, you may need to make many decisions throughout the day. If you are using your mental energy to make decisions at work you will be drained by the time your workday is over. What I have found helpful at work is to make decisions at the end of the day about what I will prioritize the next day. I review what I still have open from the current day and then see what other items are on my list. Then I decide which is the most important.  Although they can all feel very important, I choose only 2 or 3 priorities depending on how long each task will take.

By deciding the night before and putting together a minimal list for the day I eliminate having to decide what I will work on first thing in the morning when I am ready to get to work. Doing this also eliminates the need to keep reassessing the to-do list each time I am ready to work on another task. No, this does not always work.  Of course, there are many days when what I wanted to work on gets put aside for something that suddenly became more urgent. However, looking at my priorities for the day once gives me a place to return my focus once any new fires have been put out.

IT’S A WORK IN PROGRESS

No matter how much we plan ahead there will always be those days that we have to make many more decisions than we have the energy for. However, by really trying to identify those recurring decisions that happen on a daily or weekly basis in our lives we can really limit the mental energy spent on them. Don’t discount a decision because it seems like such a minor thing.  All of these decisions take up energy throughout the day. Put aside big decisions if you are able to.

When you have had a really draining day wait to make any important decisions until the next day when you have more mental energy. Just pick one thing that you can decide on once per week, instead of seven days per week. Then build on it from there.  You will see that the more you can decide on in advance, the less quickly you will become mentally tired out each day.