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Decision fatigue is something that often contributes to feelings of overwhelm, and it can be even more pronounced in neurodivergent adults, including autistic adults and adults with ADHD. It’s not always obvious that you’ve reached decision fatigue. For many people, they feel overwhelmed and can’t quite pinpoint why. You may not actually be that busy. You may even have less happening in your life than usual, and yet you still feel drained at the end of each day, and if one more thing gets added to your calendar, or one more person asks you an open-ended question, you might explode. This is because even if you are less busy, you may be making more decisions without realizing the toll it is taking on your energy levels and mental clutter.
So, how can you minimize that mental clutter and reduce decision fatigue to gain back some energy?
The good news is, it doesn’t matter which decisions you cut out of the equation, or which decisions you reduce the options to choose from. The best way to reduce decisions is by thinking about the decisions you make every day, even multiple times a day. Cutting down options and decisions daily will have the greatest impact on de-cluttering your mind!
For me, one of my main causes of decision fatigue was deciding which meals to make each week. I eventually realized that I was giving myself too many options and I didn’t actually need that much variety, so I streamlined it by rotating through a few options for each meal of the day.
➡️For breakfast, I keep some granola bars and a couple boxes of cereal on hand along with almond or soy milk.
➡️For lunch, I rotate between veggie wraps and bagels with the occasional dinner leftovers. I keep grapes or berries plus some snacks on hand to go with my lunch.
➡️For dinners, I’ll usually pick one dinner to make from 2 or 3 categories each week: Italian, Mexican, Asian, and American/Other (soup, salad, burger).
Other things that help reduce the number of decisions to make and the amount of mental effort I need to expend:
I make enough food to eat each dinner 2 to 3 nights in a row so I only need to plan a few dinners per week.
I have a list of a few recipes for each category. This gives me enough variety without getting overwhelmed or having to think too much since my breakfast and lunch ingredients are the same each week and I don’t give myself too many choices for dinners. If that’s still too much decision making, I could pick the 1st option in each category one week and the 2nd option in each category the next week.
I use grocery pickup. The app saves my frequent purchases, so I can easily find and add the same staple grocery items to my pickup order each week without needing to remember or decide which type to buy.
What do you get tired of deciding every day/week? How could you reduce the number of decisions you need to make, or reduce the number of options to choose from? I promise the upfront planning it takes to reduce your decisions will pay off very quickly!
If you would like more information and guidance on how to reduce or prevent decision fatigue, download my FREE guide to preventing decision fatigue here.
For 1:1 support with reducing overwhelm and improving mental clarity, sign up for a FREE consultation call for executive function coaching here.
- Kacey Richards, Executive Function Coach
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