Decisions, decisions

The fatigue you get from making decisions all day is real.

We make 35,000, on average, of them every day.

Most aren’t very consequential.  Like, “👍“ or “❤️“.

You can wear down over the course of a day.

According to behavioral scientists, your ability to make decisions is a lot like your ability to curl a fully-loaded barbell.

Each mental flex causes fatigue.

As you tire, you default more and more to what’s easy.

When you get home from work in the evening that might look like:

➡️ Picking up some Italian (easier) for dinner instead of making dinner (harder)
or
➡️ Mindlessly scrolling your social media (easier) instead of going for that walk (harder).
or 
➡️ Staying up late for some Netflix (easier) and chill rather than going to bed earlier to get some extra rest (harder).

Here’s how you might overcome decision fatigue...

Steve Jobs might have been onto something.

He wore that same black t-shirt most days.

It took the need to decide what he was wearing each day off his plate.

Here’s how you could do the same kind of thing for yourself:

➡️ Eat the same breakfast most of the time

or 

➡️ Get that workout in at the same time each day, therefore having to decide now vs. later

or 

➡️ Plan dinners and have a plain base protein already cooked, then all you have to do is season or sauce it and quickly prepare a vegetable.

Sounds simple, right?  All it takes is a little awareness and planning, but that’s what most people miss.

By making the healthy decision easier, you set yourself up for success when you’re mentally drained at the end of the day.

You’re not going to hit this 100% of the time.  Because, well, you’re human.

But, you can plan ways to get ahead of it.

Former President Dwight Eisenhower was really into productivity and liked coming up with decision-making shortcuts.

Eisenhower’s matrix can help you quickly prioritize, especially on those evenings when “Netflix and chill" is winning out to “go for a jog”.

Use this idea (pulled from my health coaching certification friends at Precision Nutrition).  Separate your to-dos into the four quadrants below:

You still have decisions to make, but you won’t be using as many cognitive resources.

I’m guessing that you want to put time into what you truly value, you can use this framework to help reserve the “Not Urgent-Not Important” stuff for AFTER you’ve marked the essentials off your to-do list.

And of course, decision fatigue is just one example of a hidden stressor that can negatively affect your health behaviors.

The Best Is Yet To Come!

-Coach Michael