Decision Fatigue: Understanding Why You Feel Stuck and How to Move Forward

Have you ever stood in front of your closet, completely overwhelmed by the simple task of choosing what to wear? Or found yourself unable to decide what to make for dinner, even though you've made dinner thousands of times before?

Friend, you might be experiencing decision fatigue.

Here's the thing about decision fatigue - it sneaks up on you. One minute you're crushing it, making decisions left and right. The next? You're standing in the grocery store, paralyzed by the forty-seven different types of pasta sauce, wondering if this is what sends you over the edge.

Let's talk about why this happens and, more importantly, what you can do about it.

Every single day, we make hundreds of decisions. What to wear. What to eat. Which email to answer first. When to schedule that meeting. Whether to say yes to that volunteer opportunity. Some decisions are small, others are life-changing, but they all require mental energy. And just like your phone battery, that mental energy has a limit.

The good news? Decision fatigue isn't chronic. You can take steps to mitigate it, and it starts with understanding your motivational design.

Your MCode - those intrinsic motivators that drive you - can be your secret weapon in fighting decision fatigue. When you understand how and when you make decisions best, you can structure your day to maximize your decision-making effectiveness, even under stress and tight timelines.

Let me share a story about my client Sarah (not her real name).

Sarah came to me frustrated because her manager had labeled her as indecisive. Sarah, like a lot of clients I work with, believed she wasn't good at making decisions, and this belief was paralyzing her at work.

But here's what we discovered: Sarah wasn't bad at making decisions - she just needed more information to make them confidently.

Sarah has a strong Meet Needs motivator. This means she's driven to identify and fulfill the needs of others. But here's the thing - not fully understanding the need, not knowing the boundaries can cause someone highly motivated in this way to over function. There are too many unknowns, and that lack of information can trigger an avalanche of doubt about just which meeting the need looks like.

Once we understood this, we reframed her need for information. Instead of seeing it as indecision, we recognized it as her natural drive to meet needs effectively.

We worked on how to ask for clarification in a way that aligned with her motivator. For example, when given a presentation task, instead of stressing about making the wrong decision, she learned to ask: "Just so I'm clear, do you have a time limit for this presentation and is there a slide deck format you're already using?"

This simple shift changed everything. She wasn't being indecisive - she was gathering the information she needed to meet her boss's needs effectively. Knowing the exact need helped her decide on how best to meet it. Quickly. Effectively.

Understanding how your motivational design impacts your decision-making isn't just helpful - it's game-changing.

Let's look at how different motivators approach decisions:

If you're motivated to Demonstrate Learning, you need to understand everything about a situation before making a choice. That's not procrastination - that's you operating in your sweet spot! Your energy comes from learning all the angles, understanding the implications, and then making an informed choice.

Don't fight this tendency - plan for it.

Those of you motivated to Make an Impact? You're constantly weighing how your decisions will affect others, the project, or the bigger picture. You need to clearly see the ripple effects of your choices.

When you can't see how a decision impacts the greater good, you might feel stuck or unmotivated to choose.

And if you're motivated to Advance? You're looking at how each choice moves things forward. You need to see the clear connection between your decision and progress toward the goal or mission.

Without that line of sight to advancement, decision-making feels draining rather than energizing.

Here's where it gets interesting: when you understand these conditions that help you thrive, decision-making shifts from being an energy-depleting task to an energy-giving process.

Instead of beating yourself up for needing too much information or taking too long to weigh the impact, you can recognize these patterns as your natural decision-making style.

Here's something crucial to understand: The belief that we're bad at making decisions often comes from the way others have reacted to our decision-making style in the past. Maybe someone always jumped in to make decisions for you because you weren't quick enough.

Or perhaps your decisions were constantly second-guessed, sending the message that you got it wrong. No wonder we sometimes shut down and avoid decisions altogether.

So how do we combat decision fatigue?

Here are some practical strategies that work with, not against, your motivational design:

Minimize Daily Decisions and Create Habits and Routines

• Menu plan for the week in advance.
• Choose your outfit the night before. Some successful people wear the same thing daily (hello, Steve Jobs!)
• Create regular routines for recurring tasks.
• Learn to stack your habits.

Use Your Motivational Design

• Schedule important decisions during your peak energy times
• Organize tasks according to your natural motivational flow.
• Build in time for your decision-making style.
• Honor your need for information, impact assessment, or advancement clarity.

Practice the Queue Technique

Ask yourself: "What happens if I don't make this decision right now?" Some decisions need immediate attention - no additional time or information will change the outcome. This is where you lean into your motivational design to help you decide quickly and effectively. Others can wait until you have more energy, time, or information. This gives you the benefit of being able to carefully consider the outcome while you weigh the options.

Learning to queue effectively is a key strategy to employ when managing decision fatigue.

Recognize the Burnout Connection

Decision fatigue is often a symptom of burnout. Working to understand the root cause of burnout is essential. When clients come to me to help with burnout, we look very closely at their lowest places of motivation and determine ways to work from those low places for shorter periods of time. This provides relief from the stress caused by doing the must-do-but-not-energizing tasks that we all have to do.

Decision fatigue is real.

Most of the time we suffer silently, thinking there must be something wrong with us when the choices are many, but the decision still is hard to make.

The key is understanding your natural style and working with it, not against it.

In the meantime, be gentle with yourself.

Maybe that pasta sauce decision can wait until tomorrow.

After all, as St. Francis de Sales reminds us, "Never be in a hurry; do everything quietly and in a calm spirit."

Even when it comes to deciding between marinara and vodka sauce.