Decision Fatigue: Why It’s So Hard to Make Up Your Mind These Days, and How to Make It Easier

From the moment we wake up each day, we’re faced with a continuous stream of choices. When there are too many options, we tend to feel overwhelmed, anxious, stressed or otherwise out of sorts. This is decision fatigue, a state of mental overload that can impede our ability to make additional decisions.

Even if you’ve never heard of decision fatigue, you have probably experienced it, especially during the pandemic, which has added a new layer of complexity to the everyday choices we face. “There’s no aspect of the pandemic that has not thrown decisions at us that we haven’t had to make before,” says psychologist Barry Schwartz, a visiting professor at the Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley and author of “The Paradox of Choice.” “Things that used to require no thought or effort now require a lot of planning. In the covid world so much is uncertain — we haven’t had practice making decisions under these circumstances.”

Furthermore, “The information we need to make decisions keeps changing,” says Lynn Bufka, a practicing psychologist in Maryland and senior director for practice transformation and quality at the American Psychological Association. “And with the pandemic, some decisions are fraught with some level of risk, which can lead to anxiety, which can impair our ability to take in information and make decisions.”

Having insufficient information about the choices at hand may influence people’s susceptibility to decision fatigue. Experiencing high levels of stress and general fatigue can, too, Bufka says. And if you believe that the choices you make say something about who you are as a person, that can ratchet up the pressure, increasing your chances of being vulnerable to decision fatigue.

While you may not be able to avoid this phenomenon entirely, you can take steps to minimize or manage it both during the pandemic and after. Here’s how:

Put sleep on your side.  If you’re struggling with a difficult decision at night, rather than rushing to make it before turning in, you’d be better off sleeping on it and reconsidering how you feel about it in the morning.

Make some choices automatic.  Some easy ways to do this: When you go grocery shopping (or order grocery delivery), use a master list that has the same staples, and buy the same brands each time.  And if you’re trying to exercise regularly, dedicate a consistent chunk of time for it every day.

Enlist a choice adviser. When it comes to making important or particularly challenging decisions, “it helps not to be in it alone,” says psychologist Baruch Fischhoff, a professor of engineering and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University. “Ask someone you trust who cares about you to check your thinking.

Give your expectations a reality check. “Remind yourself that good enough is almost always good enough,” Schwartz says. If you need a new mobile phone or TV, it doesn’t have to be the best model out there.  Remember, too: “Most decisions are not going to be 100 percent irrevocable or going to determine the path of our lives,”

Pace yourself. When you make one decision after another, it’s easy to end up with cognitive fatigue. That’s why it’s important to “give yourself time to rest and recover throughout the day and break up activities so you’re not mentally on all the time,” Bufka says.

Tune into how you’re feeling. Be alert to signs of decision fatigue and act accordingly: If you’ve had a demanding day that was filled with lots of decisions, put off making another one, if you can. If things that wouldn’t normally faze you start bothering you, consider that a sign that you may not be in the optimal state of mind to make a major decision.

Excerpted from “Decision Fatigue: Why It’s So Hard to Make Up Your Mind These Days, and How to Make It Easier” in The Washington Post. Read the full article online.

Source: The Washingon Post | Decision Fatigue: Why It’s So Hard to Make Up Your Mind These Days, and How to Make It Easier, https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/wellness/too-many-choices-decision-fatigue/2021/09/21/2dffce74-1b22-11ec-bcb8-0cb135811007_story.html | © 2021 The Washington Post

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