From the moment we wake up our brain is active and making decisions at alarming rates, do we snooze the alarm again? Do I lie in bed for another 30 minutes or do I get up and start getting ready? On a daily basis it is estimated the average person will make 35,000 different decisions, it almost sounds unrealistic when you hear the number but when you think of the conscious and subconscious decisions our body makes to keep us alive the pieces fall into place.

With all of this happening in our heads there’s no way our brain can function at such a pace without getting fatigued. What is decision fatigue? According to Medical News Today, ‘Decision fatigue is the idea that after making many decisions, a person’s ability to make additional decisions becomes worse.’ You become so tired with each decision that you eventually start making poorer decisions, and the most obvious signs are avoidance, procrastinating on tasks, and impulsive buying.

By no means am I a doctor or expert, but having found myself on the struggling end of decision fatigue not even realizing I was there, I came up with a list of some ideas that helped me and could help others to combat this fatigue.

1. Meal Prep

This might be the most common method used today to avoid your day to day stress. Approximately 200 of the thousands of decisions we make in one day are centered around food alone, even without this calculation it’s no secret how preparing your food saves you stress and fatigue throughout the week. Cooking your own meals at the beginning of the week will save you money in the long run and time, which can be put towards other activities.

2. Have A Grocery List

In order to prepare your meals you have to have a list prepared of what you will need for the week. If you decide to skip meal prepping, just having a list at the grocery store helps to keep you on track and spare your wallet of the extra expenses that come with grocery shopping while hungry.

3. Turn On The Radio

It never occurred to me how time consuming and frankly anxiety inducing it was to find a good song or playlist on my drives. Sometimes I will sit in my car and not move until I have found the “perfect” soundtrack to my drive. I know I’m not the only person who feels this way, you can just Google to find a post somewhere on social media of someone making a joke of the same scenario. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to have a soundtrack playing that matches your main character's energy of your own life, but sometimes just turning on the radio and letting the decision of what comes on be out of your hands is a relief. And depending on your driving record might actually be a necessity to help you keep your eyes on the road.

4. Write Down Your Schedule

I never thought I’d be the person that likes to keep a daily planner of tasks or itineraries on vacations, but this year has changed me. After starting and upkeeping many side projects with trip after trip, it became clear to me that there was no way to get things done in a timely manner without writing it down and allotting a space for everything. I don’t believe that because something is planned out there can’t be deviations, this just helps frame things out and makes sure you not only know everything that needs to be done but have an opportunity to get to them all. My favorite thing about doing this for trips is that it helps you pack smarter and saves you time once there to jump straight into activities.

5. Own A Cohesive Wardrobe

This is something I’m still working on myself, but having a closet full of pieces that can work together is one of the best things I’ve decided to change in my life. To have a cohesive wardrobe doesn’t mean you should eliminate your personality or expression in how you dress, still fill your closet with the colors and styles you like, but with each addition you make I recommend asking yourself how can I style this and what does this match with in my closet.

6. Don't Buy Multiples Of The Same Thing

I’ll bite, this one is definitely a bit of a reach, but do you really need multiples of the same item? Having too many variations of the same thing just makes the decision that more difficult in terms of what color do you wear or which flavour do you pick. It’s time consuming and is easily one of the first things that can be cut out of your day to day.

7. Develop A Daily Routine

This goes hand in hand with maintaining a schedule, make some things a mainstay that never change so no matter your schedule for the day your routine will be consistent. Things like morning and night routines, a time range when you eat your meals and how you spend your free time. These can be modified with each day but for the most part when they are set your brain doesn’t even have to think about what it does anymore and it becomes natural.

Most of these are steps and tasks we hear successful people talk about adopting at some point in their lives, the traits and habits that have been common amongst them all. I like to think this is because since they had less decision fatigue they had the ability to devote time and strength to other ideas like starting a tech company in their garage. While following these might not make you the next Bezos or Musk, they will make your brain much happier and hopefully more relaxed.