Combatting Decision Fatigue
Yesterday I announced my writing challenges for 2024, and all evening, all night and all morning, I found myself consumed by the excited-nervous energy that comes with the realisation that you’ve let yourself in for more than you’re ready for.
It’s something I used to get a lot during the peak internet hustle years, and I remembered how good it feels.
Today, not so much; there’s the excitement for the big adventure then there’s three miles down the road and remembering your walking boots rub slightly and you forgot the packed lunch you were supposed to take, and so on.
How To Fire On All Cylinders
Big challenges, and big life changes in general, really revolve around two things:
- Mastering the Inspiration/Grind/Transformation cycle
- Having everything else together so that your energy is spent on the new thing
For the first; we’re all excited about a new challenge. Motivation is, chemically speaking, a way to tap into depleted willpower reserves; your body tells you a reward is just over the hill, you get the spark to change. That lasts a very short time on a scale of things, and then you’re left with the grind that it takes to achieve conscious competence. If you stick at that long enough, eventually the conscious becomes unconscious and you have achieved whatever sits atop the hill you desired in the first place.
For the second; we are all limited either by willpower or time or other life obstacles. When making a big change, it’s important not to waste your cognitive power on unnecessary things; this mostly manifests as decision fatigue.
For a real-life example; I am writing a short story every day as well as a Vault post and a blog post. I can still hit the gym in the mornings and take lunch breaks, but if I don’t know whether today is gym day or a rest day, and I have to decide whether to go to the store to get something to eat or eat what I have in the house, and so on, I’ve wasted important cognitive capital before I’ve even typed a word.
And working out what to write is a taxing thing itself.
Combatting Decision Fatigue
I’m naturally very good at systems thinking. The problem with throwing yourself headfirst into any challenge or new life situation is that it’s not possible to anticipate all the possibilities for all the obstacles that can get in your way.
Something as simple as writing a blog post or uploading a short story every day can result in a ton of different decisions; each of them sapping at your time and energy.
For instance, today;
- What do I write about? For all of blog, Vault and short story
- Do I Launch Immediately or wait until I’m in the habit?
- Endless nonsense with Photoshop, (trying to create book covers and featured images)
- Do I set up templates to make this easier or wait until I have more data?
- Should I cut this subpar gym session short and get to writing?
- Should I write these emails for the other business before or after I start this creative work?
And, the answers mostly fall into this:
- Every bit of preplanning and system work you do must aid the decision-making process later on
- I just remembered I’ve got to send those emails out
- A decision taken now is a hundred decisions taken later
- There is always a systematic approach but you can’t reduce output to concentrate on it
Basically, you combat decision fatigue by making the decisions in the present so you don’t have to make them in the future.
There’s a lot to be said for the OODA-Loop as a strategic approach. Observe, Orient, Decide, Act. In a chaotic situation, you need to do this. In a situation where you’ll potentially have to course correct, this is basic practice.
But actually, in day to day life, for the most part, you are exhausting limited cognitive resources by using this approach.
Figure it out once, make sure you do it right, and OODA becomes A, with the occasional Observation.
Day One Done
All this said, Day One is done, but not really to my satisfaction.
I wrote a short story that I’ve tentatively called No Good Deed where a guy steps in to help a homeless old lady and all kinds of shenanigans ensure.
I wrote a blog post which you’re reading now.
And earlier I wrote a Vault post for the Foundations Course about running a high-ticket service business.
For the first, the title doesn’t fit; that’s ok because the fiction site isn’t launched yet. However, in a month’s time, I’ll either have to have a better way to title things or I’ll just have to launch and deal with it.
For the blog; these things shouldn’t be left to chance. Need to know what I’m writing and why.
And for the Vault; I need to really get my organisational skills together because the difference between a mindblowing private member’s site and a Substack-tier collection of premium ramblings is massive, and I want to create the former.
This, all among dozens of irritating issues with websites, graphic and processes that shouldn’t exist within a week or two.
Ironing out the kinks is the name of the game.