011 | Decision Fatigue: Strategies to Minimize It

Ever feel like your brain is running on fumes by the end of the school day? You're not alone. As educators, we make countless decisions daily, from lesson planning to classroom management. But have you ever considered how this constant decision-making affects your productivity and well-being?

Welcome to the Productivity for Teachers podcast, where we explore practical strategies to enhance your teaching experience. In this episode, we're diving into the world of decision fatigue - a phenomenon that silently impacts our ability to make sound choices as the day progresses.

Episode 5: Calendar Blocking https://www.buzzsprout.com/2435508/episodes/16592345

Episode 10: The Eisenhower Matrix https://www.buzzsprout.com/2435508/episodes/16783068

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Transcript

Hi teacher friends. Dr. Sarah here. I hope your week is going well. Thank you so much for joining me. Today in this episode, we are going to talk about something I wish we talked about more in everyday life, and that is decision fatigue. So what is decision fatigue? Well, humans have a limited capacity for making decisions, or maybe more accurately, sound decisions. And many of us make as many as 35,000 decisions every single day. The quality of our decisions tends to decline over the course of the day. Self control, willpower and the ability to make sound decisions or good decisions decrease. Constantly making decisions, whether they are big decisions or small decisions, can leave us feeling drained, foggy, and even a little grumpy. The point is that every decision we make drains our energy. Many of us think that time is our most scarce resource, but I really think it's actually our energy, specifically our mental energy. Once our capacity starts to decline, so does our ability to make good decisions. Decision fatigue is especially prevalent among professionals, including U.S. educators, and it can lead to poor decision making and decreased productivity. By the end of the day, the last thing you want to face is yet another decision. Which is why what's for dinner? Can often be the most difficult question we face every day. Sound familiar? Have you ever sat at your desk at the end of the day looking at your to do list and can't figure out what to work on? That's decision fatigue. So let's talk about a few ways you can recognize decision fatigue, and then we'll talk about what we can do to mitigate the effects of decision fatigue. Or how we can minimize decision fatigue altogether. Recognizing decision fatigue Some of the signs can include increased procrastination. You might say to yourself, I'll just deal with that later. Or indecisiveness. You may say to yourself, I just need more time to think through this all. Or making poor decisions. You might say, I'll just do it this way without really considering what might be the best way. Or you make impulse decisions. You might say, I just want to get this over with. Those are all signs that you might be dealing with decision fatigue. So how can we mitigate the effects of decision fatigue or or minimize them? Or in some cases, maybe even prevent decision fatigue? One way is to determine crucial decisions and prioritize them. Decision frameworks like the Eisenhower Matrix, which we discussed in great detail in episode 10, can help you figure out where to focus your attention and minimize that decision fatigue. A pro and con list can help in these circumstances as well. Once you have determined where to focus, tackle those complex tasks or decisions early in the day before decision fatigue has a chance to set in. Be specific when you add tasks to your list. I've said on this show before, vague to do list items are productivity killers, and one reason for that is that they increase decision fatigue. If you're not sure what you're supposed to do, then you still have to decide what to do and you still have to figure it out. And all of those things over the course of the day can add to decision fatigue. So when you add a task to your to do list, be very specific. If it's a more complex task, maybe add three or four tasks or add specific subtasks to the task so that ambiguity is reduced. Delegate non crucial decisions to trusted colleagues or family members Now, I realize for us teachers it's difficult to find somebody to delegate to, but there are some things at home that we can probably delegate to others. Engage in mindfulness practices to regain mental clarity, or simply just take a break. Even a short power nap can really reduce decision fatigue. I would not recommend taking a power nap in the middle of class, however. Get enough sleep. Our brains function so much better when we've had at least seven hours of sleep. And as you know, exercising and eating healthy food will also help our brain function at its best. Here's a big one. This is a big one for me. Let go of perfectionism. A wise person once told me, done is better than perfect, and I have to remind myself of that quite frequently. We perfectionists tend to allow decisions to sort of linger because we want to make sure that we get it just right. And those lingering decisions drain our unconscious energy. It's almost like background noise, these lingering decisions. If you struggle with this, one thing you could try is setting a deadline for when you're going to make this decision. This next suggestion is critical in reducing decision fatigue, and it is plan your day in advance, meaning the night before. That's one less thing you have to do in the morning. It really helps if you do it the night before. And speaking of planning your day when you're doing it, go ahead and use calendar blocking to decide when you will work on what. Episode five describes how teachers can use calendar blocking even when their schedules change daily, like mine does. Now, this one is probably the most effective way for reducing decision fatigue. Establishing systems or workflows or habits, routines, standard procedures, templates, or even automation. In other words, anything that you can do to set things up so you don't have to reinvent the wheel. Creating structured systems for repetitive decisions really reduces the mental strain caused by making frequent choices. So what is a good guideline for knowing when a system will be beneficial? Because it does take time to set up a system or a routine or a workflow. So you need to know when. When is that time going to be well spent? I use the rule of three. If I have to do the same thing or a similar thing more than three times, it's probably worth creating a system or a routine or an automation for that task. So here are some examples of routines and workflows and templates and habits that you can use to minimize decision fatigue. And these little steps add up to big gains over time. Consider your wardrobe. As you probably know, many successful leaders are known for wearing the same outfit every day. Now does not mean that they're wearing exactly the same clothes every day, but they buy all dark suits or they wear only black shirts, things like that. Fewer decisions to make if you already know what you're going to wear now, that may sound like misery to you, and if so, you could consider maybe simplifying your wardrobe or Another way to reduce wardrobe decision fatigue is to plan your outfits for the week, or at the very least the night before. Routines Routines are highly effective in minimizing decision fatigue. Routines are simply habits strung together, and ideally one habit or completing one habit will trigger the next one, and so you string them all together into routine. Highly effective people have morning routines, routines for when they arrive at work, evening routines, weekly routines, you name it. Effective people have a lot of routines, and again, to some of you that may sound incredibly boring. In my experience, routines actually set me free to enjoy the important things in life more. If you've never consciously created a routine, I recommend starting with an evening routine to set up your next day for success. Some things you could consider including in your evening routine would be planning the next day like we talked about, including calendar blocking, getting your breakfast ready for the next day, setting up the coffee maker, packing your lunch and deciding what you'll have for dinner, and deciding what you'll have for dinner the next day. And if that involves defrosting something, go ahead and take care of that as well. You might also include setting out your clothes for tomorrow, getting your work bag ready, making sure your car keys are right by your work bag, things like that. Anything to make the next morning easier, and also reducing the number of decisions you have to make right when you wake up. Another thing you can do to reduce decision fatigue is have themes for dinner every week. A lot of people do Taco Tuesdays right? Or Slow Cooker Thursdays if you have a theme in mind for each day, then then again those are fewer decisions that you have to make. And go ahead and do a little meal prep too if you're so inclined. Again, fewer things to decide Templates Use templates. They are wonderful. I use templates to reduce the number of decisions I have to make. They also remind me of the best way to do things. So I use templates for unit planning, lesson planning, some emails and recommendation letters, things like that. Things that I do over and over again. And we will cover templates in a future episode. Speaking of email, look into some simple email automations. Again, fewer decisions that you have to make. Outlook, Gmail, and other email apps have very robust options for automating some email functions. Create system workflows for repeatable tasks like onboarding new teachers into your department or award programs, student field trips or travel placement testing, things like that. Workflows are most handy for things that come around maybe once every quarter or once a semester or once a year. Once you've created that workflow, you can refer to it every time that task comes up again, saving you lots of time and saving you lots of decisions. I'm sure many of you already do this, but automating tasks like paying bills is a fantastic way to reduce decision fatigue and subscribing to recurring purchases. Do you order the same thing over and over again? Go ahead and subscribe to it or set up an automated renewal for that. I do that for my cat's food, my dog food, the cat litter, things like that that I know I have to buy on a regular basis. Making a master grocery list also helps you reduce the number of decisions you have to make. And my last little suggestion here is setting up a naming convention for files and knowing where you're going to put certain files. So setting up a routine for your files. This also reduces the number of decisions you have to make. If you know that this kind of file type will go here and what you're going to call it. You can also look into file automation. And guess what? Yes, a future episode will also talk about file automation. So as you know, here at the Productivity for Teachers podcast, we like to recommend one step you can take today to make a big difference. Of all the strategies we discussed today, I think that building a routine will give you the best benefit. It will help you reduce decision fatigue the most. So if you don't have routines already, I would start with a simple evening routine. Use a checklist in the beginning to remind yourself of what you should be doing and use that checklist until the routine becomes second nature. I think you will be really pleased with the results. Well, teacher friends, I hope you enjoyed this episode today. Remember to be gentle with yourself and celebrate your wins. And don't fall into that perfectionist trap like I often do. Small steps add up to big wins over time. You can do this. I'll see you next Tuesday.