reserve mornings for tackling complex decisions

Decision-making is akin to a muscle. It works fine initially, but as we use it throughout our day, it gets exhausted over time and stops functioning effectively. 

One way to make sure decision fatigue doesn’t negatively affect your life is to take care of highly important decisions first thing in the morning, when your mind is fresh and fully charged, and schedule small, less impactful decisions after work, when decision fatigue is at its prime. 

It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the constant stream of decisions that come our way. And when you have too many important decisions lined up, the best strategy is to wake up early and tackle them one by one. In this way you are able to give these crucial decisions your time, energy, and attention, before you get hit with other minor decisions and distractions such as phone calls, emails or meetings. 

Schedule the smaller decisions and less-complicated tasks in the evening time. In that way, you’ll not only free up your precious resources to address complex decisions in the morning, but you’ll also get a head start for the next day. For example, lay out your clothes and prepare your bag or briefcase in the evening, so that you don’t have to worry about them the next morning.