Decision Fatigue is Real, Make Life Simple

That’s right. Your decision making muscle gets tired too!

I’m not good at choosing what to wear in the morning. In fact, when I lived out of a backpack and only carried a few clothing items getting dressed seemed easier. When I discovered #Project333 by Courtney Carver I was intrigued that she had discovered ways to still look great while owning very few pieces of clothing. 

I realize now that the reason why I love having fewer clothes is that I don’t have as many decisions to make when getting dressed every day. I reflected on this yesterday as I read Ryder Carroll’s new book The Bullet Journal Method. Carroll writes that because of decision fatigue “… we often feel stressed, anxious, and overwhelmed.” 

Also, when we are constantly feeling strained due to decision fatigue we start trying to avoid making decisions altogether. I can personally testify that since Emilio and I started our business we have found that so many decisions need to be made on daily basis with our work that we actually can argue over who has to make the decisions.

5 Good Ways to Treat Decision Fatigue

Often when we’re experiencing decision fatigue we will lean towards poorer choices or whatever is most convenient just to avoid having to make one more decision. Hence why fast-food, binge behaviour, shopping, traveling, etcetera is often the negative results associated with decision fatigue. 

But don’t fret… you’re allowed to indulge and “shut-off,” but here are some suggestions that can help prevent you from reaching decision fatigue as often.

1. Meal Planning

Every day you have to consume food to survive. By mapping out your week and your meals in advance you can eliminate up to 21 decisions or more. Get started with meal planning with our best suggestions no matter what you like to eat.

2. Capsule Wardrobes

I seek the advice of a friend to help me partner clothes that seem to match with everything. If you don’t have that friend try searching “capsule wardrobes” in Google Images. You’ll get lots of visual examples that you can replicate easily. Watch our Tips for Decluttering Your Closet.

3. Make a Rough Plan

If you take 10 minutes to think about the day before it begins or sometimes the night before you can help reduce your decision making by over half. Even if your days always seem to be “crazy busy” this pre-planning solidifies your intentions. If you don’t decide how to spend your time, someone else will.

If you feel like this task is daunting, try a fast morning ritual to warm up to this idea. I’ve been doing it for 2 years and it’s made huge positive impacts on my life.

4. Make a Budget

Don’t worry I’m not saying you can’t spend your money! But you should know how you spend it and where. You can decide on how much or how little you use — that’s the biggest secret I learned about budgets. Full disclosure, Emilio taught me how to leverage this amazing strategy. And guess what? Yep. It makes decision making really easy. You always know if you can or cannot afford to do something, which translates into confident decision making.

Check out our interview podcast with Stephen Wharley entitled Simplify Your Life By Organizing It. 

5. Get to Know Your Why

We both cannot stress enough the importance of understanding what you want and why you want it. The concept is simple: understand yourself and you will be able to live a life you love. However, it is a challenging exercise to ask yourself big questions like: do you love your work? do you feel engaged by the people around you? are you honest and authentic?

You can answer these questions on your own. Or if you do better with guidance try reading a copy of our book A Recipe For An Extraordinary Life. Organization | Minimalism | Self Care. It’s a step-by-step method for designing a life you love.