Decision fatigue: unveiling the hidden culprit of indecisiveness and how to overcome it.
I saw this meme about how adulting is nothing but making daily decisions like what to eat every single day. Have you ever been overwhelmed…
I saw this meme about how adulting is nothing but making daily decisions like what to eat every single day. Have you ever been overwhelmed by the sheer amount of choices you have to make in a day? Because I have. What used to be mundane, everyday choices are now overwhelming and sometimes overhyped.
Think about it: how many times has society and social media influenced what would have been a simple choice and made it a real task? Maybe you felt like eating some leftover rice and chicken for lunch but you just scrolled on Instagram and you see nothing but fancy meals being shown through these amazing reels and now you want to ‘romanticize’ your lunch.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with the notion of romanticizing every bit of your life, but do so authentically and realistically. The idea should be to romanticize what you have and not fabricate something you feel is worthy of social media’s take on romanticizing. This can snowball into decision fatigue, which can lead to mental exhaustion. When choosing what to wear, what to pack for a trip, what to eat, how to decorate a room in your house, etc. do what truly makes you happy and what’s within your means.
Decision fatigue can manifest as indecisiveness, impulsivity, and even procrastination, negatively affecting productivity and well-being. No one wants that and I’m here to tell you that it can absolutely happen if we’re not careful. Here are 4 things that you can do to help prevent getting to this point:
- Prioritizing and simplifying. This is self-explanatory; there’s nothing like truly knowing your priorities and working towards living a simpler life.
- Setting decision-making boundaries. If you struggle with decisions like what to eat every night, set a boundary. For example: you make a predetermined list every Sunday and if you want to change your mind about what to eat on a specific day, you can switch meals around while staying true to the list you created.
- Mindfulness and self-care. Identify what you struggle with when it comes to making decisions (that’s the mindfulness part) and figure out ways in which you can help yourself best cope with that and come out of that funk (that’s the self-care part).
- Time management and energy conservation. The whole point of this is to manage your time wisely so you’re not wasting it trying to make decisions and preserving your energy so that you are not exhausted in the process. Be honest with yourself and approach making decisions authentically — this will help you so much in the long run.