Decision Fatigue: Why you are mentally exhausted and how to reset

Modern life bombards us with more choices than ever before. Digital overload forces hundreds of micro-decisions daily, perfectionism keeps us spinning in circles seeking the "perfect" choice, and our failure to prioritize decisions means we waste precious mental energy on trivial matters. 

The good news? Simple strategies can dramatically reduce decision fatigue. Join in and dive into these simple yet profound tricks that make all the difference.

Freedom doesn't come from unlimited options but from clarity about what truly matters. 

Take the challenge: identify just one decision in your life to simplify, automate, or eliminate today, and notice how much lighter your mental load becomes.

 Your energy is precious—spend it wisely on what truly matters to you.

Chapters

• 0:00 Understanding Decision Fatigue
• 3:14 Main Causes of Mental Drain
• 5:32 Signs You're Experiencing Decision Fatigue
• 7:04 Reset Framework for Mental Energy
• 10:42 Daily Rituals to Implement Now
• 13:04 Final Thoughts and Challenge

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Have you ever stood in front of your closet in the morning staring at all your clothes and still thought, I have nothing to wear? Or maybe you've been at a restaurant holding the menu for way too long, unable to pick something, and finally you just blurt out, I have what everyone else is having, or what's your best selling item from the menu. Or maybe it's the end of the day and you're so mentally drained that the thought of deciding what to eat for dinner feels overwhelming. So you grab whatever snack is closest, or you just order takeout once again. Now, if this sounds familiar, you're not alone. And it's not because you're bad at making decisions, it's not because you're lazy. What you're experiencing is called decision fatigue. Hi everybody, welcome back to the Self-Help Podcast with me, it's Polly. This is your safe space to unpack life's chaos one story at a time. And today, over the next 15 minutes, I want to walk you through what decision fatigue is, why it leaves you so mentally exhausted, and most importantly, how you can reset your brain, simplify your choices, and take back your mental energy. Because when you reduce decision fatigue, you unlock clarity, accelerate focus, and your ability to channel the gifted energy into what truly, really matters. So let's start with the basics. What exactly is decision fatigue? Now, decision fatigue is the gradual decline in the quality of your decisions after a long session of decision making. Imagine your brain like a phone battery. Every time you make a decision, big or small, you drain a little bit of that battery. And by the end of the day, you're returning you're running on 5%, and that's when mistakes, impulse buys, or I don't care anymore choices happen. And they have happened with me way too many times. Now there's some fascinating research on this. Psychologist Roy Bomster coined the term ego depletion and showed that our willpower and decision-making abilities are like muscles. They actually get tired when overused. One famous study even showed that the judges were more likely to deny perol later in the day compared to the morning. Why? Because their decision-making battery had been drained already. But here's the key part Decision fatigue doesn't only hit in big, serious situations like a courtroom. It happens to all of us. Every single day, knowing or unknowingly. Choosing what to wear, what to cook for dinner, what to pack for your kid's snack, deciding just what to eat, what are the healthy choices? Picking up a Netflix show or just doom scrolling on the YouTube feed. Answering emails, parenting decisions. Should I say yes to screen time? No, maybe later, it's endless. And the truth is, it's not about being indecisive, it's about the sheer number of choices we face daily. Modern life has given us more options than ever before. And while options sound like freedom and opportunities, they also come at a cost. And that cost is our mental energy. So why does this leave us so drained? Let's break down the main cause of precision fatigue. First, too many trivial decisions. Most of us don't realize how many small, seemingly insignificant choices we make in a day. What to wear? What route to take to work? What to eat? Which phone calls to pick up and which to avoid. Which message to respond to first? Each one chips our mental energy. One small moment at a time. Second, very big on the list, the digital overload. Now we live in an age where our phones, apps, social media are constantly asking us to choose. Do you want to reply to this message? Ignore that notification. It reminds you that you received a notification maybe a day or two days ago. Scroll one more video, watch this or that. Even when we think we are relaxing online, we are disassociating in a healing way, our brain truly is still making 100 of micro decisions all the time. Third one, lack of prioritization. Not all the decisions are equal, but when we treat them as if they are, our brain gets overwhelmed. Choosing what email to answer first should not drain the same energy as deciding whether to switch careers. Right? But if we don't set boundaries, our brain treats it all as important and of so much weight and volume and priority. So the key is to decide what decision is important, is groundbreaking, and what can be deferred, what can be really eliminated. And fourth one, perfectionism. I have bare the brand of this one. Oh my god, so many times. This is really big. For most of us, I believe. And I'm a recovering perfectionist, so I know how this sounds. Many of us get stuck trying to make the perfect choice. And I often remind myself that done is better than perfect. We don't want to get it wrong. So we obsess, delay, and keep spinning around in circles. And ironically, that obsession makes us even more tired than choosing and just moving forward. Here's an analogy. Imagine opening 40 tabs on your computer. Now, even if you're not actively working on each one, you're all pulling in some memory in the background. Right? Slowing down your system. That's exactly what happens to your brain when you're carrying the weight of too many choices. Now let's talk about how you know if you're experiencing decision fatigue at all. Now, some size include procrastination. You put up decisions because you just can't deal with them, or it's too overbearing or overwhelming, irritability, being crocky. You snap at people not because they did something huge or bad, but because you're already mentally overloaded. Just having so many choices to make, and you might notice impulsive choices like buying things you don't need online late at night, or ordering an ice cream from Daily Queen or your favorite spot, or just getting a good greasy meal because it makes you feel good. All of these are sometimes an outcome of mentally overloaded brain, or avoidant choices, like just not doing anything at all, zoning out, not giving a care for the world, not even thinking about things that matter, and just binging Netflix, not because you wanted to watch it, and not because it was the default, but it was because the path of least resistance, so you just give in. Sometimes it even shows up physically. You feel tired, foggy, checked out, even though you didn't run a marathon or you did any heavy lifting, you did no physical heavy work, but that's your brain waving a red flag. You are perpetually tired. Now, if any of this sounds like you, do not panic. It doesn't mean that you're broken, it just means that you've been running your decision battery too hard, and it's time to put a pause. And the good news is that there are plenty of ways to reset. So let's dive into the reset framework and think of practical ways to reduce your decision fatigue and take back your control. Number one, reduce your decisions, simplify your life. Now, this is about eliminating unnecessary choices, have a go-to morning routine, eat the same breakfast most days. Barack Obama famously said he only wore blue or grey suits because he didn't want to waste energy deciding. And now that I think of this, I'm more than more than ever before actually intentionally reaching out to my to all my black outfits. But I have I think over two dozen of outfits, not just pieces of clothes, which are completely black, and and that goes to sh say that I have this undying love for my colour black, but I just feel my most confident, happy self when I'm dressed like that. And so instead of buying many different colours and experimenting, now there was a phase in my life where I was all about colours and rainbows and experimenting and all the trials of different fashions, but I only realize what works for me, and now I don't have that mental energy and time to make those fashionable choices, and I don't want to make them because they're too exhausting and too taxing for me. Now, Steve Job wore the same black turtleneck every day for the same reason, and so does Mark Zuckerberg. I've heard him say in this interview once that he wears mostly blue and grey and black t-shirts just to keep it simple and easy. And I'm not saying that you need a closet full of identical outfits, but just simplifying these small areas frees up your mental battery for bigger things which are more important. Number two, prioritize big decisions only. As they say, address the elephant in the room. So your brain is the sharpest in the morning. Use that window for your most important decisions, your career moves, financial planning, creative projects, and save the trivial ones like grocery list or lottery for later. Think of your brain like a muscle. Lift the heavy weights first while you still have energy and not when you're completely drained. The three, create decision boundaries. Set rules for yourself so you don't have to re-decide daily. For example, Meatless Mondays or Taster Fridays to simplify the days. Write batch emails and messages at set times instead of constantly responding and just you know feeling the need or the pressure to respond to someone the moment they message you, they text you, or they give you a call. The fewer open loops, the lighter your brain feels. Now, beyond strategies, let's talk about mindset shifts because that's where it truly stems from. First, adopt the good enough mindset. Not every decision needs to be perfect. Think of it for a minute. You don't have to make perfect decisions in your life, even though we are all chasing them. Sometimes good enough is actually the smartest choice. Perfectionism is the enemy of progress, and done is better than perfect. Second, trust systems, not willpower. Relying on willpower alone is like trying to swim against the current systems. The other hand, like routines, your list of to-dos or preset rules are your safety net. Third, embrace rest as productivity and not like something that you get to do after you've worked your ass off. No, you wouldn't expect an athlete to run non-stop without recovery, but we expect our brains to make hundred of perfect decisions without balls. Rest is necessity, it's not optional, it's a vital part of your brain's performance. And just imagine how good you feel when you have a good night's sleep, when you're very well rested, make better decisions, you make creative energy flow through your day, you're happier, you're less snappy. And lastly, align decisions with your energy. If you know you're the sharpest in the morning, don't waste the time scrolling social media. Use it for high impact decisions and protect your peak energy hours. So let me give you some daily rituals that you can implement right away. Evening prep. Choosing your outfit for the next day. Both your work outfit and your gym outfit so that you're not tempted to go back to your bed. Prep your meals. Okay, if you're not a big fan of weekly meal planning, same high five, even I don't mean prep for the entire week, but just prep ingredients. Just have some kind of fruits and veg in your so you're not reaching out for snacks, so you're not just ordering takeout again. And write your to-do list the night before. That way it's a brain dump and you get to relax and wind down. That way your morning is smoother and your brain feels lighter and not chaotic. Now, number two is morning power. No phone, no distractions, tackle your hardest task worse. Even if that is getting your son out of the house and in the cart and into the daycare, whatever is important and meaningful to you. Create digital detox windows, set two to three hours a day where you're just not on your devices. And if that means you're doing your deep focus, most creative, best productive work, so be it. Just some focus time, not to give to the world, but to yourself, to your goals, or to even your relaxation for that matter. Give your brain a breather. And sometimes the best breather we can give our brain is just by focusing and being in the moment and giving our best to whatever we are doing. Could be cooking, could be just doing your deep focus work. The two-minute rule. If something like takes less than two minutes, do it immediately. That way you don't carry it around as an open tab in your brain. And that this one applies definitely to tidying around the house. Because I have seen when I need things just like that, even things which particularly take less than two minutes, everything piles up and I have to spend maybe half a day just looking around and cleaning things up and tidying it all up. It's not worth it. Just a two-minute rule. If it can be done in less than two minutes, please do it immediately. Number five on this list is decision journal. Once a week, write down which decision stressed you the most. Can I automate this? Can I simplify this? Can I eliminate this? Over time, you'll see patterns and you will lighten your load. So let's recap. Decision fatigue is real. It drains your mental energy, it drains your mental battery, makes you tired, foggy, and impulsive, and it's caused by too many trivial decisions, seemingly unimportant decisions or options, constant digital overload, lack of prioritization, and your need to be perfect. But here's the good news: you can reset by simplifying your choices, tackling big decisions when you're fresh, setting boundaries and creating systems and not relying on willpower or empowerment or motivation because it leaves you when you need it the most. By doing all of that, you protect your mental energy. And here's the key thing mindset shift. Freedom doesn't come from having an unlimited number of choices. PD me doesn't. Freedom comes from having clarity on what truly matters and systems that protect your energy for those things. So here's my challenge for you today. Take just one decision in your life that you can simplify, automate, or just eliminate. Maybe it's setting a meat plan. Maybe it's choosing your outfit the night before. Maybe it's just turning off notifications. Maybe it's your habit of responding to emails and messages the moment they hit your inbox. Start small and see how much lighter you feel. Because when you beat decision fatigue, you don't just free your brain, you free your life. Thank you so much for listening in. And if you found this helpful, share it with someone who's always overwhelmed by choices. And remember that your energy is precious. Please, please spend it wisely. Thank you, and until next time, bye bye.