Decision Fatigue
Decision Fatigue is a real phenomenon. After a long day of school, work, whatever it may be, making decisions can be tough. Regardless of how strong you are, your ability to making decisions waver. This in turn leads to horrible choices that can perhaps have a long lasting impact. It is imperative to consider all viewpoints in order to make the “best” decision which can be really overwhelming. This is especially tough when making a life altering choice such as: deciding on a college, picking a major, or accepting a job offer.
Your mind can get clogged up in the details of other unimportant things. From waking up in the morning and deciding what to eat for breakfast to sleeping at night and thinking about what time you should set the alarm for, you are constantly making decisions, every minute of your life. In fact, according to UNC TV, an average human being makes about 35,000 decisions a day. So how can we make our life easier? Here are some tips I follow to make my everyday tasks simple:
I make sure to always pick out my outfit for the day the night before. I pick one outfit to workout in and hang it on the right side of my closet. This way, I wake up and walk over to the right side for my leggings and t-shirt ready to head to the gym. I pick out second outfit for work and hang it on the left side. After I come back from the gym, this premade choice makes it easier for me to grab the clothes and get ready. Before I developed this habit, I would spend anywhere from 10 - 30 minutes just deciding what to wear. Now I earn back the time and am ready to start the day as soon as I wake up!
I prepare and pack my lunch for a couple of days in the future. This habit does take a little preparation, but you’re saving yourself from wasting time in the future. Now, I don’t waste time scrolling through DoorDash for hours.
Lastly, while I get ready in the morning, I’ll take out everything I need to use for the day. For example, I will take out my toothbrush, toothpaste, make up items, deodorant all out of their respective drawers in the morning. Then as I use each one of them, I will put things back in its place. It keeps me organized and never feel that I' forgot something!
I hope that these little tricks help you lessen the amount of decisions we have to make. It really can be overwhelming so take any chances you can get to reduce that unnecessary stress in your life and simplify things just a tad bit :)