Sometimes exhaustion doesn’t look like exhaustion. Sometimes it looks like standing in front of an open fridge at 5PM, completely unable to decide what's for dinner. You don’t feel tired exactly; it’s just that your planning bandwidth is empty.
This is decision fatigue. You’ve made 200 micro-decisions that day already, creating a lot of brain friction on the way, and it has quietly run you into the ground. (And quiet problems can be the worst.)
Decision fatigue comes with overthinking, but it’s also just having so many things being thrown at us all at once. Most that we didn’t even ask for.
The email to confirm your appointment. The text to confirm you got the email. The call to confirm you got the text. The birthday card you get from the one orthodontist you had a consult with in 2019—it comes every darn year. 🙃
So here are three ways to avoid death by a thousand decisions and get some of that energy back.
#1 - Figure out what you value most and use it as an instant no
When you're clear on your top priorities, most decisions make themselves. Does this request, commitment, or obligation serve what actually matters to you? No? Then it's not a maybe—it's a no. You don't have to deliberate, as you’ve created a built-in filter where you can automatically say no to everything or just plain delete and ignore it.
#2 - Make recurring decisions once
Stop re-deciding things that don't need to be re-decided. Lunch is always leftovers from the night before. Create a standing grocery order. Have a set bedtime routine that doesn't get negotiated. Every time you automate a small decision, you protect your energy for the ones that actually matter.
Rotating or reassessing recurring decisions seasonally works really well here. Hearty bowls and soups in winter, salads and grilling in summer. Run outside in spring and fall; exercise indoors during peak summer and winter.
#3 - Give yourself permission to decide later
Your phone has trained you to believe everything is urgent. It isn't. Most things that land in your inbox, your group chat, or your mental to-do list at 11pm can wait. It just doesn't feel like they can.
When something non-urgent hits you, park it deliberately. "I'll think about that Friday" is a complete answer. Protecting your right-now energy from problems that belong to future you is a skill. And in a world that's specifically designed to demand your attention every thirty seconds, it might be the most important one you develop.
Kevin & Victoria
