Are you in a brain fog from too many decisions? Here are 5 tips for combating decision fatigue. Welcome back to Savvy Psychologist, I'm your host, Dr. Monica Johnson

Are you in a brain fog from too many decisions? Here are 5 tips for combating decision fatigue. Welcome back to Savvy Psychologist, I'm your host, Dr. Monica Johnson. Every week on this show, I'll help you face life's challenges with evidence-based approaches, a sympathetic ear, and zero judgment.

We’ve all felt the pressure of too many choices. In fact, it sometimes feels as though our lives are built on it. There are a million movies, shows, and influencers all vying for some of our attention. The world appears topsy-turvy as we move through this pandemic. Is it okay to buy a house right now or not? With climate change, is parenting the right choice? What the heck should you eat for lunch? I can’t make any decisions for you, but what I can do is give you a few tips to clear up some space so you can find those answers for yourself. 

1. Reduce daily decisions

You know how I harp on everyone about routines? There are a multitude of reasons for that and one of them is helping you to reduce daily decisions. You have a limited amount of focused brain activity that you can contribute to your day. Do you really want to spend that time going back and forth about clothing, what you’re going to eat for breakfast, or if you should finally go vegan? Going vegan is a fairly big decision, probably not the type of thing to mull over on a random Wednesday, but more on that later.

The point here is that you should build routines and systems to limit decision waste. For instance, when I used to provide in-person sessions, I always wore the same thing. A blouse, black slacks, and shoes that were made for walking. There are many entrepreneurs like Mark Zuckerberg or Steve Jobs who follow a similar philosophy. It may sound boring, but imagine if you only had the capacity to make 5 decisions in a day. Would you want to spend one of them on your outfit for a regular Wednesday? I’m sure there are a few folks into fashion who would, but for others, there may be other types of decisions to prioritize. 

2. Schedule decision times

Remember those bigger decisions like going vegan that I mentioned earlier? Many of us spend significant amounts of energy ruminating about them at times that just aren’t ideal. When a decision is emotion-driven or causes worry, it sucks up the air time in our brain. You’re well aware that you have an important project due next week, but all you want to do is choose paint colors for your new apartment.

To add even more color to this story, you may hate said job and keep daydreaming about your next step. I’ll tell you the same thing I tell my patients: I want it to be your decision to leave a job and not the other way around! Ron Swanson from Parks and Rec comes to mind here, censored of course, but don’t do anything halfway, do it all the way! Plan a time to create a mood board for those paint colors or block out dedicated time to muse about your next career move. When you schedule a time to think through decisions, you can use the time more efficiently and the experience tends to be more satisfying. 

3. Allocate finite resources

Whenever there is a decision that you need to make, set the parameters for the decision. What I mean by this is to allocate how much time and energy you want to put into the decision. I’ve had patients who spent weeks of their lives pondering a flight itinerary or choosing a lamp. Here is what I know about a lot of these decisions: for every time it was worth it to spend this amount of time pondering, there are 1000 times that it’s not.

How many times have you spent a month on a decision, only to come back to an item or idea you had within the first 10 minutes? Instead, it’s best to look and say, I will spend 1 hour looking at flight times or 8 hours choosing the right lamp for my bedroom. When you hit your time limit, whatever you’ve come up with is the final decision. This strategy will take some time to feel comfortable with emotionally. When it comes to reducing decision fatigue, choosing sooner is often the best option. 

4. Explore your options

This may sound counterintuitive, but it’s not. One thing that can lead to decision fatigue is not considering all the options. Emotions often get in the way and you can only see 1 or 2 options when truly there are 5. Perfectionism can create havoc in these scenarios because you only want to review the options that appear to have no downside or fit a preconceived notion you have about the situation.

Instead what I encourage you to do is review all the options, the pros and cons of each, the likelihood of success in the choice, and then rank them. Of the 5 options, you may have 2 that have no chance of happening so it becomes easier to cross them off the list, and from there you choose the next best option. This can work incredibly well when you combine it with scheduling decision time and allocating finite resources. 

5. Does it really matter?

This is a quick one, but ask yourself this question. Will this matter in one week, one month, one year? There are times when we spend an inordinate amount of energy on decisions that we are unlikely to remember even 3 days later. If you’re making a decision about having a child, take your time, because that is a decision that affects the rest of your life and that of others. However, even that has a time limit. You may say to yourself that you want to take the next 2 years to explore the question using some of the strategies mentioned in this episode. But if it’s truly something that doesn’t matter in the long run, treat it as such. So often we treat each singular decision as though it’s the final one, when it’s simply one of many decisions you will make throughout your week. When you know what matters to you, you’ll find that it’s a lot easier to clear the deck.