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How to prevent decision fatigue

Decision fatigue. It causes us to make unhelpful or irrational decisions. The consequences in your business can be procrastination and not creating the outcomes you want. In your life, the consequences are procrastination and not creating the outcomes you want. Yes, the same result. 

Decision fatigue will cause you to take the easy road or to procrastinate. And for those of us who have been on the personal development path for many years, you know how big a challenge it can be to overcome these two tendencies!

So, what is decision fatigue and how can we avoid it?

Decision fatigue is the deteriorating quality of decisions made by an individual after a long session of decision making. Given that we all make on average 35,000 decisions every day, you could say that towards the end of most days, we all have decision fatigue! It is at these moments that we decide not to go to the gym, to eat dessert, or simply to not do what we promised we would.

Sounds like it might create a few problems, right?

Yes. If you are creating new habits or banishing bad ones, then this is the crux of your challenge. Will power is a limited resource, so you need to rewire your decisions.

Here are 8 tips to prevent decision fatigue:

1. Cut out unnecessary decisions
You may already be familiar with the fact that Steve Jobs always wore the same thing to work each day. This was a conscious choice on his part to avoid making the decision of what to wear each morning. Sounds simple, but makes a big difference. You too can apply this approach to things in your life. Decide on things just once and then don’t make that decision again. Maybe having the same smoothie for breakfast or the same lunch. It eliminates one decision so you drop it from your mind knowing it’s already been decided.

2. Put the most important decisions and or tasks at beginning of the day
If our decisions are better at the beginning of the day, then you need to move the most important decisions and projects to your first priorities in the morning. Here is where the argument for avoiding email first thing is validated! All those decisions spent on correspondence and filing emails could be better spent on the decisions and tasks that will really generate your results.

3. Don’t delay decisions, schedule them if you have to
Never delaying a decision means what? It means you will free up so much space in your brain that is currently filled with the“might do that”,“will I or won’t I” and“must decide on that”. Having undecided things in our heads not only takes up a lot of space but adds to the decision fatigue. We have unnecessary“noise” in the background of our minds when we run back and forth over a decision. And each time we think of it, we’re increasing our decision fatigue. Don’t delay decisions. Make them once and drop them. If it’s really a big decision and you require time to think it through thoroughly, allocate specific time to weigh things up and make sure you set a deadline.

4. Schedule decision-making time
As I mentioned above, bigger decisions can require more time. Rather than let them loose while you go about your working week, schedule a specific time on your calendar to literally go through the decision-making process and make the final decision. This way you know you have time allocated to deal with it and will not have it floating around in your head.

5. Have a process for making decisions
So naturally what followsall this, is in scheduling decision time, you will want to run a big decision through a type of system. This is an efficient and effective way to manage the larger decisions we have to make from time to time. This will vary from person to person, but generally you should ensure you are aware of your core values(for a personal decision) and the company values(for a business decision. You can set a questionnaire, talk it through with your mentor/guru or take time out in nature- the process is up to you!

6. Drop some decisions altogether
Yes, you can drop a decision completely. You can do this by delegating or deleting. You may be able to delegate certain decisions that ultimately can be handled by your team/ partner. You can delete decisions that are no longer relevant or important to you. 

7. Reframe the right/wrong approach
Somehow we have all been led to believe that decisions are either right or wrong. It’s all a matter of perspective. Whatever the outcome of your decision, the actual outcome is neutral. It is only what we think about the outcome that ultimately classifies it as “good” or “bad”. This is not an avoidance of accountability. This is accepting that a choice will create an outcome and there is no right or wrong outcome. There is just an outcome. Don’t agonise over a decision. There is not just one path to your destination, there are many, and you can get there with different decisions.

8. Leave it alone
Once you have made a decision about something, leave it alone. Don’t go back over it again second-guessing yourself. This is surely how most of us are creating the decision fatigue. We um and ah and say to ourselves “oh, I don’t know.” But, if you did know, what would it be? Don’t let yourself float in that cloud of so-called confusion which is actually self-created. Make the decision and have your own back. What’s the worst that can happen? You make a detour. It doesn’t work, you try something else. But make the decision once and follow through without second-guessing yourself first.

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Staying Calm Under Pressure

Running and building a business can present us with some challenging situations. How we handle those those situations doesn’t just impact our results but also our health. Think: stress and overwhelm. While we can’t avoid stress altogether, we can certainly manage it better. Learning to stay calm under pressure is the key to managing stress and avoiding overwhelm.

Over the years I’ve developed a number of key practices that have helped both myself and my clients to remain calm under pressure. Here are the basics:

Pause before you react

This is key. Once we react to the situation or source of stress, then it’s a slippery slope into overwhelm. Just pausing at the moment when you receive that difficult email or at that moment when someone says something to make your blood pressure shoot up, is the key. This is the first step in awareness and the first part of any CBT approach to changing your behaviour. If you can practice pausing before you react to something that is difficult, you will have more choices. This is one of the most powerful things that we can learn, not only to better manage stress but to transform our choice and lives. It makes us more self-aware or what is also termed “conscious”.

Take a few deep breaths

This tip ties in with the pause tip just mentioned. It helps create that pause but it also creates other benefits. Taking the time to take 3 deep breaths will not just give you more time but make you more aware of your inner body. Temporarily you focus on something other than the problem. Focusing on your breath will actually help to calm you as it takes out out of your mind (your thoughts) and brings your focus into your body. As our muscles naturally tense when we’re stressed, our breathing also shortens. When you take deep breaths it helps to slow your heart rate and increases the oxygen in your blood.

Watch your thoughts

All stress is created in our minds. It is on our minds that things begin as a slight irritation and grow into a huge problem that overwhelms us.  So it’s important to watch your thoughts. Notice what you are thinking after you read that horrible email. Notice what you are thinking about your workload. Is your self-talk creating a bigger problem? With practice, you can notice the thoughts that come up. For example: “I have no time for this” or “I’m never going to get this finished” etc. Being able to notice your thoughts is a big step in being able to better manage your stress. Once you notice your thoughts you can ask yourself a simple but effective question: “Does this thought serve me?” If it doesn’t, simply let it go.

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How to slow down

Feeling a little too busy? A bit out of control?

We all have times in our lives when it really feels like we can barely come up for air. There’s a constant stream of appointments, tasks with both professional and personal commitments. There’s no room to move. While it’s inevitable that you will pass through short phases of this type of busyness, this is not what a typical week should look like in your business ongoing.

It’s very easy to move from task to task all day with the aim of completing the to-do list. “Just once it’d be nice to have it all finished” you may think to yourself. But is that realistic? As Solopreneurs we are doing it all (or mostly all) ourselves. Wearing so many different hats can be chaotic and it does tend to lengthen that list of things to do. If you’re feeling like it’s all never ending and you’d like to stop but feel that you can’t, then this is a sign that you actually need to slow down.

So how can you slow down? And what does that mean really? Let’s clarify first what it doesn’t mean: It doesn’t mean you give up on your business goals altogether. It doesn’t even mean that you have to give up anything, if you don’t want to. What it does mean is that you need to be realistic about what can get done in a certain amount of time. This is a hard one. I struggle with it. Ever the optimist and and master of efficiency, I think I can do many things in what end up being (too) short spaces of time. If I can’t do it in that time, then it’s taking too long. What’s all that about? Perfectionism?

Okay, moving on from the “P” word…you can slow down by implementing a few key strategies. It’s up to you how much you think you need to slow down but I recommend trying out at least 2 of the following tips:

  1. Write out all the goals and projects you have (if you haven’t already). Choose the 3 most important and work on those. None of the other goals exist until you complete one of the 3 goals and then you can start a new one. Just work on no more than 3 goals at once.
  2. Look at your deadlines. Are they realistic? Here’s a good way to check. If you have been working consistently towards your goal and you’re still not on track to completing it within the time-frame, then the deadline is not realistic. It’s that simple.
  3. Become aware of what’s going on in your life. There are times when things are feeling out of control because we’re dealing with a significant life event. This could be moving house, divorce, the death of a loved one. Any significant life event will require more energy and time from you. If you just add your normal routine to this life event as well, it’s way too much and you will feel like you’re spinning out of control. So do a life audit: Have you experienced any big life changes recently (in the last 12-18 months) or have some on the horizon?
  4. Turn your phone off. I love my phone. But if it’s on, then it’s usually by my side and I usually check it for email, facebook, text messages and look up things on the net. This means I’m constantly doing things and not switching off. This will contribute to feeling like things are moving too fast, quite simply because you literally do not stop. Carve out at least a few hours a week of phone-free time and feel the difference.
  5. Meditate or listen to calming music. A lot of the feelings associated with being busy come from our busy brains. There’s a constant stream of chatter. If you can turn it off or dull it for 20 minutes a day, it will change your life! You’ll feel calmer and be able to think more clearly.
So go ahead and try 2 of these tips. Even if it’s just for a week, I guarantee you that you will feel a change in your pace.  Try it and see what happens!