How to reduce decision fatigue
We all know the feeling, we get to the end of the day and our partner says to us, “Did you decide where you want to go for dinner tomorrow?” It seems innocuous right? Quite nice in fact. But sometimes it’s enough to tip us over the edge – ANOTHER DECISION TO MAKE!
Constantly making decisions about every little thing can leave us stressed – its an emotional and mental feeling of weariness. It can lead to feeling that you are always late and feel overwhelmed. There is an eyewatering statistic that says that people make 35,000 decisions a day – that’s 2,000 an hour! I think that seems a bit high but nevertheless we do make a lot of decisions each day – that cannot be denied. Those decisions can be small or big. Shall I snooze my alarm clock or get up now? Where shall we go on holiday this year with our primary aged children? Shall I have chicken or tuna in my sandwich?!!
Decision fatigue can manifest in different ways, we can feel frazzled, like our brain feels full. It just makes us think “argh! I have too much on my plate”! – here are a few other more tangible ways it can affect people:
We might make bad decisions because of the weariness it causes us.
We could make snap decisions just to “get it over with” – decisions which we may have made differently if we didn’t have decision fatigue
We procrastinate because we just want to put the decision off (see my previous blog on procrastination! 4 reasons why we procrastinate and 6 ways to stop! (unscrambleme.co.uk) )
How can we combat it?
Reduce choices.An example of this would be to clear out your wardrobe to reduce the options available and make the choice of what to wear easier.
Meal planning –this is one of my favourite things to talk about! Making a decision every day, or at every mealtime, of what you and your family, will have for dinner, and then the ensuing decisions relating to sourcing the food and making the meal can be exhausting. Finding time to plan your meals and go and do the grocery shopping every week and stick to meal planning can be completely life changing for busy people
Focus on your priorities - make sure you have a way to highlight and focus on the prioirities that really matter to you each day
Delegate! For any decisions that don’t require your personal attention – delegate them to someone else wherever possible
Have a routine and stick to it. This doesn’t mean you have to be super boring and do the same thing at the same time for everything in your life but having a schedule for bedtime, when you meal plan and shop, when you do your exercise will all help to take away daily decision points and calm your mind.
Ultimately, learning how to make habits stick, and implementing habits if you are busy, will allow the small things to be taken care of “without thinking” . This frees up room in our brains for dealing with the things that really matter. For example you need to really get to grips with how to meal plan for a family for example, or find ways to get into the habit of regular exercise and that structure will really help you with how to feel in control of your life and avoid decision fatigue. It will help you with how to stop forgetting things and stop procrastinating.
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