Last post I talked about overwhelm and some of the ways I try to handle it. For me, one of the biggest contributions to that feeling of crushing overwhelm is decision fatigue.
Decision fatigue has been talked about in quite a number of articles but the general idea of it is that the human brain can only make so many decisions before it gets exhausted. I know for me this frequently shows up when I get home from work and cannot decide what I want for dinner.
For most people, you'd think that it was the big decisions: what do I want to do with my life, what job should I accept, etc. that are the biggest culprits, but it’s actually the tiny decisions that pile up the fastest. It can include things you may not even register as a decision: what should I wear today? How do I want to sign off on this email? What should I instagram today? Do I need to reply to this email? Should I answer this phone call from a number I don’t recognize? What should I blog about today?
These kinds of decisions start to pile up and bury me pretty quickly. That’s where a lot of my overwhelm comes from. I struggle to find the brain power to even make the decision on what to work on next. So instead, my to-do list piles up and makes me feel even worse.
If, like me, you deal with depression or anxiety, the energy in your brain tank is already taking a massive hit so even the simple decision of ‘When should I get out of bed?’ turns into a huge issue that involves a lot of struggling with yourself to just complete that task. By the time you’ve done that, do you have the energy to deal with the rest of the world? A lot of times, that answer may be no.
So what do you do about this?
Unfortunately, decisions are a part of life so there’s no getting rid of them. But you can help yourself make fewer decisions. Some of the more common tips are to make big decisions and important work for early in the day, but that’s not possible for every schedule.
What’s helped me the most is building habits. Once something has become a habit it doesn’t take the same amount of decision energy because it’s just something you do. So, rather than trying to think about what to have for breakfast every morning, I know that I will have a smoothie. I choose my clothing for the week all at once so I don’t have to make that decision every day.
Another strange tip that’s worked for me is to think of future me as though she’s a friend, a different person than me. Somehow turning a task into ‘helping out future me’ makes it not a decision but a favor. I’m not sure why it works but I’m willing to take advantage of my brain’s affinity for helping people to help myself.
Another option is to take the decision making away from yourself. Roll a dice, flip a coin, let chance take the wheel for a moment!