Ej Qua Hiansen l December 1, 2023 l The Manila Times
IT is estimated that the average person makes 35,000 conscious decisions per day. Assuming that you sleep 7 hours a night, that breaks down to about a decision every 2 seconds.
By the end of the day, some people are so mentally exhausted from all of the decisions they have to make that they find it challenging to make other decisions, a phenomenon known as decision fatigue. This has only gotten worse over time.
With smart phones and social media, people are faced with more and more conscious choices with quicker feedback loops. It is no wonder that business luminaries such as Steve Jobs streamline their decision-making by wearing the same outfit daily.
I often joke that the most difficult daily decision is what to eat for dinner. The author, James Clear, has five suggestions for overcoming decision fatigue.
First, plan your daily decisions the night before. These are decisions such as what to wear to work but also include items such as scheduling your day to automate these micro-decisions that are made daily. This saves more space within the day for more important decisions.
Clear’s second suggestion is to do the most important thing first. He suggests that we should make our most important decisions when we have the most energy, clarity, and focus. This has been very challenging, as I am not a morning person, but I put this into action by journaling my key thoughts for the upcoming day.
The third suggestion is actually to stop making decisions and start making commitments. By this, he means that we can schedule time to do what we want, again minimizing the decision-making that actually happens. Instead of deciding if you will go do groceries after work, put it on the calendar so that no decision is necessary. I’ve seen highly effective leaders utilizing time blocking to organize their lives, to the point that even the time for filling out a form was placed on one of their calendars.
The fourth suggestion is one that I think many of us can agree with: if you have to make good decisions later in the day, then eat something first. Sometimes, we can make important decisions early in the day and must also ensure that our brains and bodies are constantly fueled.
Lastly, Clear suggests that we should simplify, focus only on what is important to us, and eliminate what is unimportant.
I would also propose that decisions are easier to make when you know the ultimate purpose and when you start with the end in mind. This provides a guiding light and helps make the decisions more conscious and intentional.
We make so many decisions in a day; we should strive to make the most important decisions, the best decisions as well. But when in doubt and you absolutely cannot decide, you can always ask ChatGPT.