How to Beat Decision Fatigue

You and I probably have at least one thing in common: the administrative burden of modern life can be exhausting. Overwhelming. Frustrating. We can’t escape it.

How many decisions are you faced with on a daily basis? In how many of those decisions are you happy with the outcome? How many of those decisions lead to more work or more problems down the road?

We’ve all been there—we’re stuck in a never-ending cycle of decision fatigue. It’s the feeling of being overwhelmed by the number of choices we have to make on a daily basis. And it’s not just big life choices like where to live or what job to take; it’s also the smaller choices like what to wear or what to eat for breakfast.

The problem with decision fatigue is that it leads to bad decision-making. We either make rash decisions without thinking them through or we avoid making any decisions at all because we just can’t face another choice. Neither of these options is ideal.

So how do we break out of this cycle? How can we make better decisions?

Putting a decision framework into place is one way to reduce the stress which accompanies decision making.  A decision framework operates as a lens, through which, we see our options more clearly and are more quickly able to narrow down our options and arrive at our final selection.

Going through the process of defining your top 4-6 values in life will produce for you a decision framework which can be utilized in all decision making.

If you know that adventure, exploring, and family are part of your top 6 values, then when you go to purchase a new car, you can narrow down your selection to an off-roading SUV with camper options and seats 6.

If your top values include creativity, daring and communication, when it's time to make some self-improvement goals in the new year, you might consider a creative writing class, or an improv class.

When you awake in the morning, if you value beauty, health and spirituality, part of your morning routine might include a walk outdoors followed by coffee and journaling.

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If you haven't identified your values before, here's a simple exercise:

Read through the list of values below and circle 10 or more words to which you are drawn.  Select those that are most important to you as guides for how you act or as components of a values-oriented life.  Once you've identified your top 10, go through the list and narrow yourself down to 6. Feel free to add any values of your own to this list.

VALUES LIST:

acting with speed

adventure

appreciating what is

architecting

assisting

attractiveness

authenticity

be the source for answers

be the best

beauty

being an expert

being a catalyst

challenge

clarifying

coaching

comfort

communication

compassion

compete

connected

contribute

creating

creativity

dancing

danger

daring

designing

detect

discipline

discovery

drama

educate

emotions

empathy

energy

entertaining

eternity

excellence

experiencing pleasure

exploring

faith/trust

fame

family

feelings

financial security

flow

friendship

fun

generating symmetry

godliness

grace

gratification

growth

guide

having an impact

health

hedonism

humor

ideas

illuminate

Improve things

indulgence

influence

innovating

inspiring others

instruct

integrity

intuition

invent

inviting

joining with others

leadership

learning

being linked/allied

love

loyalty

magnificence

management

mastery

ministering

motivating

networking

novelty

nurturing

openness

orderly

originality

participating

passion

peace

playing

pleasantness

proficiency

questing

refinement

relatedness

religion

risking

sensing fully

sensuality

sentimentality

serving

sexuality

spirituality

being structured

being sure

synthesizing

teaching

tenderness

the unknown

going for the thrill

touch

transcendence

truth

uniqueness

unity

wealth

winning

One feature of a good decision is that it aligns with who you are as a person.  Of course, no decision is ever truly final and there will always be new choices and new options down the road. But if we can make decisions that align with our values, we can lighten our load considerably and free up our energy for other things.

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The next time you find yourself feeling overwhelmed by all the choices in your life, remember this one simple idea: Define your values and use them as a decision framework - a set of criteria to guide your decisions.  Utilizing a decision framework can eliminate future choices or at least narrow them down significantly, which will help us break out of the cycle of decision fatigue and make better choices overall.