7 Tips to Reduce Decision Fatigue

Decision Fatigue

Do you ever wonder why you come home from a productive day at work, only to feel like doing absolutely nothing? You were so motivated to get things done, but then at home it feels like you can’t do one more thing. For instance, that health goal you have been working so hard to achieve, only to give into the temptation of a late-night snack or cookie. You may be suffering from decision fatigue.

Decision fatigue is something that I have been learning more about in my quest to be more productive, while also having more time for the things I want to do. According to Wikipedia, “decision fatigue refers to the deteriorating quality of decisions made by an individual after a long session of decision making.”

The Scenario

If you are a teacher, I am sure you can identify with this scenario. You spent all morning teaching a challenging class. It was challenging both because of the content and behaviors. You get to the lunchroom and there on the table is a pack of chocolate cupcakes. They aren’t part of the healthy diet you are on, but you are feeling so worn down and depleted that after a short (very short) internal battle you give in and eat one.

The afternoon doesn’t go much better. You have a student who gets sick and has to go home. The room is evacuated for cleaning. There is also a surprise fire drill right in the middle of explaining the key idea in math.

After school, you have a minimum of one staff meeting. This is followed by the list of new things you will need to do.

You finally decide to pack it all up and head home with your big bag of work that needs to be done. In the back of your mind you are wondering why you are dragging this home. Will you even have time to finish all these projects?

Upon arriving home, you realize that you haven’t even thought about dinner. You know that you should make something healthy that would be on your diet. However, you are so exhausted that you can’t even do one more thing or make one more decision.

So, you order food from a local restaurant in order to avoid cooking and deciding what to make. After dinner, you end up vegging on the couch, trying not to fall asleep while watching your favorite show. Exhaustion has completely taken over.

Enter the next day…

The next morning you wake up feeling stressed and irritated with yourself. How could you have allowed yourself to make all those decisions that were derailing you from your goals?

Why didn’t you just cook that healthy meal? There were some items in the fridge you could have used.

Why didn’t you finish the projects in your bag? They were simple. It would have set you up to be more prepared for today. What were you thinking???

If this scenario sounds familiar, you are not alone. I would propose this happens due to decision fatigue.

According to Goldberg and Houser, in an article published in Edutopia, teachers make about 1,500 decisions every day. In their article, they discuss ways that decision fatigue negatively impacts teaching. I have seen people, and myself, do the things that they reference.

Perfectionism

To top it all off, perfectionism starts to rear its ugly head. We have very high standards for ourselves. Lessons need to be carefully planned and executed. Our students need to make a certain amount of growth. Family life needs to be balanced. Oh yeah, and we have our own health goals.

The problem is, we want to do each of these parts of our life perfectly and when we get to the end of the day feeling exhausted with things left undone, we start to feel bad about ourselves.

There are many times when I feel like I am running with this constant hum of stress in my body and negative thoughts in my mind. There is this picture in my mind of what my life should look like, and it isn’t matching reality.

In my mind, I keep thinking that if I only did a little more or improved on this one thing, everything would be better. The consistent feeling of not being or doing enough creates a lot of stress in the body.

While I know this isn’t healthy, I am working on getting off the hamster wheel. One of the ways to do this is to improve decision fatigue.

7 Tips to Reduce Decision Fatigue

1. Routine

Create routines around important parts of your day. For example, have a morning routine. This would be the routine you use to get your day started every day. It doesn’t have to be elaborate.

Automating what you will do each morning will reduce the number of decisions you even have to make before you get to school or work.

Have a night routine. This is something I am currently working on developing. The night routine should set you up for a great day the next day by eliminating some of the choices and decisions you will need to make. For example, pick out your clothes the night before. Decide on a meal plan. Prepare the coffee.

2. Meal Plan

This could be taken to whatever level you need. I know some people who meal plan for the whole month. They can then figure out their shopping trips and what they will need to buy. This reduces the number of trips to the store and can improve the impulse buying that is so prevalent.

Other people like to plan for a week at a time. This will help you to make sure that you have all the ingredients in the house and if you already know what you will be having for dinner, you will be able to quickly get it made.

That isn’t to say you can’t eat out. However, maybe scheduling that into your plan for the week would reduce the guilt you feel for doing so because you chose to do it intentionally.

At a minimum, I would recommend planning your meals for the next day and write it down. One of the diets, yes there have been many, that I have done suggested doing this.

At first, I thought that it was a waste of time, particularly if I already knew in my head what I was going to eat. However, I can say from experience that not writing it down is as good as having no plan at all. It left me much more open to changing my mind and making poor decisions.

3. Schedule Exercise

Schedule in exercise. Something as simple as a leisurely walk can do a lot of good for your health and mental well being. Whether this becomes part of your morning routine, or you add it to a different part of the day, schedule it.

If it is on the calendar, it becomes a non-negotiable appointment. This is even more important if it is not something you inherently enjoy doing. It is an essential part of improving our health and mental well-being. So, schedule it!

4. Task Day

Plan to do particular tasks on particular days. For example, if you need to do laundry twice a week, decide which days you will it. Maybe you always wash bed linens on Saturday so you can start off the week with clean sheets. Maybe you always wash a mid-week load on Wednesday. Automating this will reduce the decisions you need to make.

5. Table It

If a decision needs to be made, but it doesn’t have to be done right this minute, table it until morning. This is an especially good idea if it is something big that has the potential to impact your future in a big way. If you are suffering from decision fatigue, it is much harder to say ‘no’ to things other people are asking you to do.

Letting people know that you need to think about it, is a respectful way to let them know you take their request seriously while at the same time not jumping into something you aren’t ready for.

6. Minimize

This may sound a little strange, but minimizing can help improve decision fatigue. Sometimes having too many choices is just as bad as not having enough.

If you are having difficulty deciding what to wear every day, consider reducing your wardrobe and creating more of a uniform style.

Having too much stuff around the house can cause you to feel overwhelmed trying to make decisions about where to put it all. I will have more about this in my post on minimalism, but for now, you may want to check out my post about the clutter magnet.

7. Schedule Self-Care

We know that the stress from decision fatigue can really wear you down. It is extremely important to take time to relax and find ways to help refresh yourself after making so many decisions on a daily basis.

This is something that you will also want to schedule in. If it isn’t scheduled, you may be tempted to feel like you have something else more pressing to do.

One thing that I find really helpful is journaling. I will sit down with a cup of coffee, put on some of my favorite essential oils, and just write everything that is on my mind. Some blends I have enjoyed using are the Balance Blend by Rocky Mountain Oils or the Purify blend. The scent of essential oils diffusing is extremely relaxing.

I will also do this at night, just with tea and not coffee, if I am feeling like my mind is too full to allow me to sleep. Sometimes through the act of writing, you can gain some clarity and focus. The Tranquility or Calming essential oil blends are very relaxing for diffusing in the evening.

At other times, I really enjoy reading a good book with my tea and essential oils. There might be something else that you enjoy doing, but be sure to include it in your weekly schedule.

Conclusion

Hopefully this post has helped you to see that there is a reason for that exhaustion that you feel at the end of each day. Just know that you are not alone and there are steps you can take to improve decision fatigue.

Even though things are more relaxed during the summer, this is a great time to start finding routines that help you minimize the number of decisions you have to make every day. The flexibility of the summer will help you to play around with some different ideas so that you have a good plan for what will work once school starts.

Let me know if you found these seven tips helpful for reducing decision fatigue or if you have some other ideas to help.