Decision Fatigue: Why You’re Tired Before the Day Even Starts

Hello Ziddis! Have you ever thought why it is that you can make sensible financial decisions at lightning speed and give important presentations even on a drowsy Monday morning, but when someone asks you “what do you wanna eat?” your brain starts to glitch! You are not lazy or indecisive by nature; this is called decision fatigue. The human brain is great, but fueling has always been a bit of a complexity. Every choice you make throughout the day takes from your mental energy. 

What is Decision Fatigue?

Decision fatigue is the psychological phenomenon where the quality of your decisions deteriorates after a long session of decision-making. While you can feel the physical fatigue in your body, your muscles and your actions, decision fatigue is subtle. It’s the “wear and tear” on your willpower. Your willpower is your battery, and at the start of the day, it seems to be fully charged. But that truly depends on how well you have rested. When your battery goes into power saving mode, it starts to look for ways to reduce usage and resorts to making impulsive decisions.

Decision Fatigue Symptoms

Decision fatigue does not show up in obvious ways. The symptoms ofn decision fatigues are very similar to feeling like losing your mental bandwidth. Here are some of those symptoms you can keep a check on:

• You start procrastinating more: You find it difficult to start a task because the feeling of “how to even begin” creeps up on you 
• You become more impulsive: Impulsive in the way that you lose your filter when you react, it could be snapping at a coworker or buying something you don’t even need because your brain is too tired to weigh the consequences
• Brain fog becomes a regular state: You generally start feeling overwhelmed and even the simplest questions feel taxing
• You avoid decision making: Choosing the default option or nothing at all becomes your personality. 

Decision Fatigue Examples

You can look at some proven hypothesis to know how decision fatigue shows up in a regular day to regular people and influence their decisions:

• The Judge Effect: Studies show that judges are more likely to be lenient or grant parole in the morning or right after lunch break. As the end ends and the decision fatigue sets, they want to make more obvious, less risky choice of denying parole.
• The Supermarket Trap: Have you observed that there are candy stands and knick-knacks placed right by the checkout? This is because they know that by the time you have made choices for everything in the store you are already fatigued and will grab some. 
• The “What’s for Dinner?” Crisis: After making big decision throughout the day, even a simple act of choosing a meal feels like running a marathon. It is not about cooking, or any physical effort but more about making a choice and that is how you end up with an unhealthy takeaway.

Overcome Decision Fatigue

There are ways to snap out of decision fatigue or make sure that you don’t fall into it at all. The goal is to conserve energy for the decisions which actually matter. Here are some research backed tricks:

Think of your energy as a bowl of sugar or a wallet of money. That is all that you have and you have to wise how you wish to spend it. Comparing energy to tangible things which can finish gives you a context to how much you can afford to spend. 

• Prep for meals a night before like over night oats, packing your lunch bag with fit foods or keeping your  oats protein ready for the morning workout. 
• Reduce the number of choices you make by setting a pattern for each choice. For example: wearing black to work every friday or having salads for lunch every monday.
• Prioritise tougher tasks when your battery is full in the morning.
• Limit your options. 

Read Also: Energy Crashes? Your Blood Sugar Might Be Playing Games

Takeaway

You willpower is a precious and finite resource which you are using up as you make choices. If you treat every choice as a priority, you’ll end up with no energy left for the things that truly move the needle in your life. Make sure you recognise the signs that your brain is tired of making decisions and let yourself take a break.