I'm no stranger to a busy schedule.
I love filling my day with opportunities to connect with others, write more blogs, and enrich my routine with new adventures.
But it is precisely because I love checking completed tasks off of my to-do list that I was surprised to find myself feeling fatigued at the thought of making more decisions. I was still doing well and chalked that feeling up to the natural lull in energy levels every one of us faces from time to time.
Yet that drained feeling was ever-present, and while I do my best to maintain healthy habits and stick to my workday routine, the sense of overwhelm I felt just thinking about making more decisions wouldn't go away. Things as minor as choosing what to wear for which meeting, when to make an important business call, and even the color of my Powerpoint slides felt overwhelming and like I was pushing my brain to its limit despite how small these decisions were.
It wasn't until recently I discovered that this phenomenon is so common that it has its own phrase: decision fatigue.
Life is full of decisions both big and small, but no matter their flavor, making decisions taxes your brain and depletes your stores of mental energy faster than you may realize. But the solution is simple: pre-scheduled routines. By planning for, adjusting, and even automating parts of your day, you can conserve mental resources needed for the most important decisions in your life, and reduce the stress of decision fatigue.
Understanding Decision Fatigue
What is decision fatigue?
Decision fatigue is a state of mental overload that can impede a person’s ability to continue making decisions. It's a psychological phenomenon where the quality of our decisions steadily decreases as we make more of them, no matter if they are in regards to complex tasks or simple ones.
Decision fatigue can affect anyone, regardless of their profession or daily routine. I would go so far as to say that most everyone has experienced some form of decision fatigue at one point or another. Think back to a time where you're too tired to decide what to cook and end up ordering take out, or a time when you had to plan a reunion among a group of friends and got overwhelmed coordinating their schedules.
It's not laziness or lack of drive; it's decision fatigue.
Common behaviors individuals experiencing decision fatigue may display include:
- Impulsivity, or not thinking about a decision before making it.
- Procrastination, or avoiding making the decision despite needing to make a choice in a timely fashion.
- Physical health challenges such as headaches, reduced sleep quality, or an upset stomach.
The science behind decision fatigue
It may sound hard to believe, but the human mind has a complex relationship with decision making. Research shows that while lacking choices drives individuals to want more choices, making more choices is perceived as negative and uncomfortable. Thus, the human brain -- while it desires choices -- can only make a certain number of decisions before it becomes fatigued.
Decision fatigue is linked to the depletion of mental energy and the brain’s ability to regulate emotions, which may sound extreme, but evidence suggests that the average American adult makes a whopping 35,000 decisions a day! Doing anything 35,000 times sounds objectively exhausting, and it truly is a testament to the power of our subconscious mind and its ability to keep all of these decisions in perspective (to a point).
Strategies for Managing Decision Fatigue
Make big decisions during your morning routine when energy is high
Whether or not you consider yourself a "morning person," outlining your most important tasks for the coming day and making big decisions after first waking up is proven to take advantage of the known cognitive benefits the early hours have on our brains. In essence, your daily routine could benefit from early morning decision making.
Generally, individuals with an earlier wake up time (and hit snooze less often) tend to experience their maximum productivity in the morning, and this could be due to all sorts of reasons deserving of their own blog post such as the presence of fewer distractions, hormones, etc.
But, importantly, I don't mean to do all of your hard work the second you open your eyes -- the brain is more like a kettle of boiling water than a light switch, and most of us need some time to get our engines revving.
Instead, I urge you to enjoy your morning routine, whatever that may look like to you: positive affirmations while your coffee machine powers up, meditation, exercise or even a brisk walk are important parts of maintaining mental health, which is our best tool to defend against fatigue of all sorts. And while you're completing the routine, think about incorporating a few extra minutes after the sleep inertia has worn off to plan your day and make those decisions with a calm, high energy head.
In short, don't skimp on self care habits that bring you peace, no matter if you wake up early or not. A morning routine that includes -- rather than makes compromises for -- decision-making can help set a positive tone for the day.
Delegate decisions and automate tasks when possible to reduce mental load
Delegating decisions can help reduce the mental load associated with decision-making, mainly because we offload some of that stress and allow others to extend a helping hand. Effective project management is all about delegation, and it's impossible for one person to do everything that a project requires.
Off that same thought, our modern world has plenty of handy tools that allow us to automate tasks, even with very little coding background. Some project management tools, for example, can automatically generate productivity reports and track when tasks are completed. Repetitive tasks are better suited for automation, and allow you to make space in your daily routines.
Delegation and automation enable individuals to focus on important tasks that require their full attention and avoid decision fatigue.
Take mindful minutes to clear your head
One of my friends has a wonderful habit where she sets a daily timer in the middle of the afternoon labeled, "center yourself." She then stops what she is doing, takes a deep breath, and tries to clear her head for only a few short minutes a day.
I think this is a creative and elegant way to incorporate mindfulness into our daily routine in a very small yet impactful way. Another name for this habit is "mindful minutes," which are designated periods of time where we take a few minutes to ground ourselves and bring our attention to the present.
It's easy to get overwhelmed when experiencing decision fatigue, and adding mindful minutes to our daily schedule can help clear the head and reduce decision fatigue. It enables individuals to focus on the present moment and reduce stress, and it can be something as simple as taking a few deep breaths or doing some light stretching.
Overcoming Obstacles to Implementing a Daily Routine
Start small and build gradually
Starting small and building gradually can help overcome common obstacles to implementing a daily routine, namely the stress of just starting one. I don't want anyone to get discouraged by creating a decision-fatigue-proof schedule all at once. Instead, try a more gradual approach.
Start by setting up your daily routine for only the following day ahead, and compare how you did against the other days of the week where you didn't follow a daily routine. I hope you notice the big difference pre-planning makes, and from there, think about following this routine for gradually more days.
Be flexible and adapt to changing circumstances
Being flexible and adapting to changing circumstances can also help overcome obstacles to implementing a daily routine, such as the common pitfall of abandoning the routine when unexpected tasks get shoved on to us. And then suddenly, we're back to making decisions on the fly without considering the impact on our mental state.
Like I always say, it's important to expect the unexpected. In my previous blog posts on time blocking and time management, I always encouraged the idea of creating "buffer" time into daily routines. This buffer time in a routine is reserved exclusively for handling unexpected deviations from the usual course, and trust me, these deviations will happen.
The point of allowing for some flexibility is to stay in control of our schedules, and thus, in control of our energy.
Continuously evaluate and adjust your routine as needed
After getting adjusted to using your preplanned daily routines on a regular basis, take a break and reflect on how the process has impacted your daily life. They can be general points for comparison, such as improved progress on a task you were struggling with, or new habits you've negotiated since starting.
And while I believe that daily routines are a great tool for guarding against decision fatigue, our daily lives are very complex, and not all changes are necessarily compatible with everyone's schedule. Look at areas where a pre-planned routine didn't make as big of a difference as you had expected, and adjust accordingly.
For example, maybe you tried to start your day in the early morning to see if you would be more productive, but found that your sleep was compromised and the brain fog took longer to dissipate.
The simple solution to this would be to shift your morning slightly later, but if that's not possible, extend your evening routine with some tasks you may have reserved for the next morning.
Conclusion
Decision fatigue can drain your mental energy and lead to suboptimal choices, but pre-scheduled routines offer a powerful antidote. A packed to-do list doesn't have to dictate how efficient or productive we operate, and instead, it can be leveraged in a good pre-scheduled routine that builds us up.
Start small—whether it’s planning your meals, streamlining your wardrobe, or blocking out time for focus—and watch as these routines bring clarity, focus and a renewed sense of calm to your day.
