Decision Fatigue: How to recognize the cues and break the cycle

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One of the questions we asked in our recent survey was what your main barriers are when making a change to improve your health. “Lack of motivation” was the top answer...by a landslide. This is a HUGE increase from our survey at the beginning of the pandemic, and while not surprising, we wanted to dedicate a week to addressing this.

Before the pandemic, a lot of our days were spent in autopilot. In the book by Charles Duhigg The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business, Duhigg explains that 40-45% of the “decisions” we make every day are not actually choices - they are automatic behaviours. We fall into these automatic behaviours or habits because we are programmed to conserve energy. We can’t sustain a heightened level of mental focus and attention all the time.

However, for over a year now, we’ve been forced to constantly adapt to new ways of working and living. We’ve had to get used to working from home, having kids or other family members at home, and the ever-changing restrictions of what we are or aren’t allowed to do. Even something as simple as a commute to work isn’t a reality for most of us, which takes away that period of time when we could be on autopilot. This cognitive overload leads to us feeling overwhelmed, exhausted, depleted, and numb at the end of the day.

This is also known as decision fatigue. Decision fatigue is a psychological concept that humans have a limited supply of cognitive load. The seemingly tiny decisions that we make all day (e.g. what to wear in the morning, what to eat for breakfast, what to write in an email, etc.) gradually deplete this limited reserve, leading us to make choices that are irrational or impulsive. Just think about your willpower to eat healthy food at the beginning of the day versus at the end of the work day. Decision fatigue has been found in many disciplines - from doctors and nurses making decisions about a patient, to judges during parole hearings, to students’ ability to perform on a test.

The analogy is similar to when an athlete is overtrained. If not enough time or effort is put into recovery, the athlete will gradually get more and more depleted physically, which leads to burnout.

When we are not giving ourselves the time to recover mentally, eventually our ability to make good decisions runs out. So even if we have the best intentions at the beginning of the day to take care of our health, at the end of the day, it’s easy to fall back onto old, unhealthy habits. We don’t have the mental bandwidth to make good decisions when we're exhausted.

So how do we break this cycle and start implementing healthy habits into our life?

We need to develop routines that will become our new “fall back” for when we’re extremely tired, frustrated, and depleted. It’s not easy, but here are a few things to keep in mind:

1. Plan ahead. You can’t wait until you’re exhausted to make good choices. You have to be proactive. This means prepping healthy snacks at the beginning of the week so when you’re exhausted, you reach for that healthy snack. Or putting your workout schedule into your calendar and making sure you have an accountability partner to make sure you stick with it.

2. Make it as easy as possible. We already have a lot going on so whatever habit you’re trying to implement, make it as easy as possible. If you want to run in the morning, leave your workout clothes beside your bed so you have to put them on in the morning. Or don’t start a meditation routine that’s 30 minutes long. Start with 5 minutes per day so you are able to fit it into your schedule easily.

3. Recognize your cues. If you recognize when you fall into bad habits, you can try to avoid the cues themselves. For example, if you always get sucked into scrolling through social media on your phone before bed, don’t bring your phone into your bedroom.

4. Be realistic. This is not a normal time so give yourself a break. You are going to have some weeks that are better than others. If you have a “bad” week, don’t beat yourself up over it. Just get back at it the next week.

For those of you who are experiencing decision fatigue or a lack of motivation over the past few months, know that you’re not alone and there is a reason for this! Now it’s just about being aware of this cycle. You can start to manage this by recognizing your cues and avoiding situations in which you’re going to fall back into those bad habits. And everyone is human so give yourself a break once in a while.

What are we finding in the research?

A 2016 study looked at the effects of decision fatigue on students’ performance on standardized tests in Danish public schools. The researchers observed that there was a gradual decrease in test scores for every hour in the day. They suggest that this is likely due to students’ mental resources becoming depleted throughout the day. However, the researchers also discovered that a 20-30min break was enough to counteract this decrease in test performance!

So while there’s a lot we can’t control right now, we can at least make sure we’re taking breaks! We can’t be dialed in all day long, particularly right now. Set an alarm to go off every hour or so to get up and do something that will recharge you for your next work period (e.g. go for a quick walk, grab some brain-power fuel, do a short meditation practice, or phone an old friend).

Read the full article here!