Must I Decide?

I suffer from decision fatigue a lot. Some of it is the nature of being a mom. Some of it is part of living in the United States. While I value choice there are definitely times when I wish I had fewer choices. Do we really need an entire aisle of laundry detergent? When I look at the dairy aisle I’m overwhelmed by the milk options. Which is healthier? Which is best for my specific household?

I really like one of the Lazy Genius principles I learned from Kendra Adachi.

Decide Once.

This doesn’t mean forever, but for a particular time or season (like this school year, or until this play is over or while someone recovers from injury or illness), we decide once on something and stick to it without constant reevaluation.

While the big, lifechanging decisions can be scary, it’s the day to day ones that wear me down. The ones that make me feel like I just don’t care anymore. So when those bigger, important issues arise, I have no strength or bandwidth left to wisely tackle them.

Pizza on Friday during the school year? Sure.

Saying no to pretty much any new opportunity in the month of March? Yep, makes sense.

Setting clear summer screentime rules so I don’t have to field the daily questions about when they can watch TV or play video games? Lifechanging

I know that well built habits help reduce decision fatigue. I don’t make a conscious choice to wash my hands or bush my teeth (at least not most days) because those are habits I’ve developed.

Sometimes the hardest part can be narrowing down which habit to focus on first (another decision!) so I don’t try to do too much at once and completely burn out.

I think I first need to develop the habit of pause and trust.

When I need to make yet another decision that I don’t want to make, I need to pause, take a breath.

I could give a bunch of advice on decision making here but there are entire aisles of bookstores based on that and I’m unlikely to say anything here you haven’t heard before.

But for small decisions, that won’t matter in a week or a month or that don’t personally matter to you at all, make them fast, and go with your gut. Or let someone else decide for you (spouse, child, friend). Reduce the friction and save your energy for things that really matter to you.

Or do like Kendra Adachi suggests and decide once and live with that for a while.

If you enjoyed this Five Minute Friday post, check out the other people free writing on the word Decision.