Dodging Decision Fatigue

Decision Fatigue - it's a thing. This is why Steve Jobs and Barack Obama always wore the same outfit day after day. Well... not the same pieces of clothing... they changed their clothes. But they had the same style of clothing in their closets. Jeans and black turtle necks for Jobs. Same style of suit and tie for Obama. Why? Well... they made so many decisions in a day, they didn't want to waste any of their decision-making power on deciding what to wear. Smart.

Most of us make an average of 35,000 decisions in a day. That's a heck of a lot of decisions... most of them flying beneath the radar, because they are so miniscule, you're not even aware you're making them. But... pay attention and... we all make tonnes of decisions in a day.

It's no wonder then, that often, by the afternoon or evening, we reach decision fatigue. What to have for dinner? Ahhh... let's just do take-out. What should we order, from what restaurant? Ahhh... let's just do pizza. What sort of pizza? Ahhh... let's just go for the carnivore, meat lover! This has happened in our household...  Maybe it happens in yours too....

And even if we have the most impeccable self-control and willpower, decision fatigue can do an end-run around that soooo easily. I mean... in the face of 35,000 decisions in a day... anyone's self-control would collapse at some point. Because our decision making power is kind of like a battery... it gets charged up by sleep and rest and food. When we wake up in the morning, we wake up fully charged... usually... and then, as the day progresses, our decision making battery drains.

When we pay attention, we can see decision fatigue everywhere.

This is how clutter accumulates. We don't know what to do with something, where to put it, whether it will be useful, etc... and so we postpone the decision. Or so we think... because in actuality we are making a decision to keep the thing!

 We have incomplete projects around the house... well... I have incomplete projects around the house! And a lot of them are stuck because they need a decision to be made... Should I put the old baseboards back on the walls after the kitchen reno? Or should I put on the new ones? But... if we get new flooring later this year (who knows with Covid19) or maybe next year or the year after... then we'll have to rip off the new ones and since they are MDF, they'll be ruined sooo... is it better to put the old baseboards on... or just no baseboards? Argh...

But... there is a trick... it's called habits. Not bad habits... but good habits. Once something becomes a habit... you don't have to think about it anymore. It just happens by itself. Like brushing your teeth in the morning... or getting dressed in the morning. Of course, now with Covid19... it is also relatively easy to get out of the habit of getting dressed every morning... and just stay in pajamas. Which is why the shrinks are offering all sorts of sage advice on how we can best maintain our mental health. And a big part of that is sticking with a routine... and following those long ingrained habits of getting up, having a shower, getting dressed, eating breakfast, brushing teeth, etc.

Rest and food can boost our decision making battery

These are all the little decisions that can drain our decision-making abilities. And we do have to make important decisions in a day... like at work... or with our kids.

The trick then, is to automate as many little decisions as possible to leave us with enough willpower to make good decisions... even at the end of the day.

I know all of this very well myself. For a while, when looking after my Dad, I had zippo routine in my life, and it showed. I wandered aimlessly through my days waiting to react to a call from Home Support or Dad or some other care-related thing. Recovering from that extended period of aimless wandering took a lot of work. Because, left to my own devices, I fall afoul of all sorts of cognitive biases.

Like this... I wake up in the morning, lie in bed and think, "Should I go for a walk this morning? It sounds like it's raining. Maybe I'll just skip today".

And so I skip a day... and then another day, and then another, because the same conversation happens every morning.

The trick to success became when I made it a habit... there's no ifs, ands, or buts... every morning I get up, get dressed in my walking clothes, brush my teeth, take my vitamins and get out the door. It might only be a short walk but... it is a walk. Then I come home, feed the cat, meditate, make and eat breakfast and then sit down at the computer and hammer out a blog or two. Without fail. There are no decisions to be made... just a routine to be followed. And it is working.

Part of my problem is linked to my never-ending to-do list and... my former tendency to sit down and look at the list in the morning, after writing, and try to decide what to do next. "I don't feel like doing that. I don't have what I need to do that. I can't decide what to do with that... or how to do that..." And so the conversation goes with very little of any significance getting done. Which is why the new method of actually sitting down and scheduling things ahead of time... not the morning of... seems to be working. The task is ready and waiting for me to work on it... no decisions need to be made... it just needs to be started.

Now... this morning, I was scrolling through my list of draft post ideas and couldn't decide which one to work on and... voila... here we are at decision fatigue. Seems kind of appropriate.