Why Making So Many Decisions Can Make You Feel Drained

You wake up and immediately have decisions to make.

What should I wear? What should I eat? Should I study for another hour? Should I go to practice? When should I finish my homework? Should I respond to that text?

Most of these choices seem small. But when you make dozens of decisions throughout the day, they can start to add up.

This is sometimes called decision fatigue: the mental exhaustion that can come from making too many choices.

It's More Than Just Being Indecisive

Decision fatigue doesn't necessarily mean you are bad at making decisions.

You might notice that after a long day, even simple choices become frustrating. Picking what to eat for dinner suddenly feels like a huge task. You might keep changing your mind about something that normally wouldn't bother you.

That's because your brain has already spent a lot of energy thinking, evaluating, and choosing throughout the day.

For teenagers, there can be an especially long list of decisions competing for attention. School assignments, extracurricular activities, friendships, family responsibilities, and plans for the future can all require different choices.

Small Choices Can Add Up

Imagine starting your morning by deciding what to wear, what to eat, which assignment to complete first, whether you have enough time to study, and when to leave for school.

None of those decisions is particularly difficult.

But then you spend the day answering questions, choosing what to prioritize, deciding how to handle an assignment, and figuring out plans with friends.

By the evening, your brain may simply be tired of choosing.

How to Make Things Easier

You don't have to eliminate every decision from your life.

Instead, try making some choices automatic.

You could prepare your backpack the night before, keep a consistent morning routine, or decide ahead of time when you'll work on certain assignments.

You can also give yourself fewer options when a choice doesn't really matter. If you're choosing between five different snacks, you don't necessarily need to analyze every possibility.

Save your energy for decisions that actually deserve your attention.

You Don't Have to Have the Perfect Answer

Sometimes decision fatigue gets worse because we feel like every choice needs to be the right one.

But many everyday decisions don't have one perfect answer.

Choosing one activity over another, picking what to eat, or deciding how to spend an afternoon usually isn't going to determine your entire future.

Sometimes, “good enough” is a perfectly good decision.

Your brain makes countless choices every day. Feeling tired from all that choosing doesn't mean you're doing something wrong.

Sometimes, you just need to give yourself permission to stop deciding for a while.