67: [Let's Get Deep] Signs That You Have Decision Fatigue and How to Combat It

We make thousands of micro-decisions every day and sometimes it just gets to be TOO MUCH! In this episode, we’re chatting about how to know when you’re experiencing decision fatigue and what to do to keep it from impairing your everyday life!

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light on green. Light on baby. Perfect. All right. You ready? Mm-hmm. Great. Welcome to the Fill Your CS podcast. We're your hosts, Morgan and Daily. Hey guys, we are here with another episode, episode 66, and I wanted to talk about this because I feel like decision fatigue is something that just really can impact our everyday life, and especially when we're feeling overwhelmed or in seasons of stress, just making lots of decisions can really wear on you. Yeah, so we kind of wanted to talk about. Why, you know, how, how we experienced that, why you get it, and then some little things that you can do to maybe help you get past that when you're in that stage. Mm-hmm. But before that, Bailey, what's filling in your cup today? I've got water as always. And then you made me some coffee that I put a little bit of. Starbucks caramel creamer in there. So yum. It's delicious. What's filling your cup? I also have coffee and I need it'cause I can tell I'm like dry. I feel like my eyes, you're like a little, are like droopy right now and I like, can't get the mo. You're like just a little red. Yeah. Okay. So maybe don't watch this one on YouTube. I used to, I don't know if you've ever felt this way, but in college I would say this and people thought I was crazy, but some, I would say, you know, when you're just so tired, it feels like your face is like sliding down. Oh, like it feels like your face is gonna fall off. And they'd be like, no, no. But that's what I feel like right now. I feel like my face is gonna like, no, when I get really tired. And I've had people be like, what? My neck gets tired and I'm like, I can't go with this freaking head anymore. Like you're a little tiny baby. Yeah. Yes. And I'm like, oh, I just can't do it anymore. And it just feels like I need my head to come off of my body for a little bit. Maybe your head weighs more than other people's. Probably does because you have a big brain. Oh, we're a big head. That's not what I was saying. Anyway, we should probably move on to our shout out. Yes, we have a fun shout out today. So if you guys follow us on Instagram or you follow along with our book episodes, you know that we love reading and we love our books. And at the beginning of every month, we post kind of like a little template on Instagram that. Just says, what have you read this month? And then people put their books on there and they share it. And one that always shares their books and is a good friend of ours. And in our book club is our friend Adriana. Yes. I guess I should open up her Instagram handle. I think it's Adrie dot Zaragoza Zaragoza is her last name. Perfect. But yeah, she always, she has been getting into reading, joined the book club. And has been sharing her book templates. But yeah Go look at our Instagram story at Failure Cups podcast, if you want the book template, but we always post a. If you read one, if like your goal is to read one book a month, there's one where you can just put the book of the month. Mm-hmm. Then there's one with two shelves usually that you can do. You know, if you read 2, 3, 4 ish books a month. And then I always say that the third template is for the girl who's Good Reads goal is her part-time job. Yes. Because it, because you can stack lots of books. Yeah. It's like into that one shelf. And you can put at least like five books on each shelf. Yeah. So really just depends on the month, how avid of a reader you are that month. But we like to, because. Everybody's reading journey. Journey is important. Whether you read one book or 10. Yeah. So we encourage you to go grab those, but shout out to Adriana who has been super consistent Yes. On resharing those and we love to see it. Mm-hmm. And love to see what you're reading. Mm-hmm. I actually really do like to see what other people are reading because. There's a lot of times that I'll go in and see that Someone was like, oh, I read this book this month, five stars, and I'm like, oh, I'm adding it to my one to read. I'm like, yes. Or I'm like, oh, I forgot. I've been wanting to read that book. It's like, definitely gonna be my next on the book. Yeah. So yeah, I agree. I'm excited. I've also read two books this month so far. Nice. In August. So I'm ready for that book template. Yeah. Girl, you are on it. I'm on it. I'm thinking I'm so back. I'm so back. And then you're gonna have a baby. Yeah. And then I'm gonna be like, Ooh, didn't read any books this week. I'm really sorry. No, you'll, you'll have your Harry Potter audio book. Oh yeah. Throw back to last. Anyway. So onto the episode. So I, I picked this topic and I've been thinking about it for a while, but especially recently, I feel like. Defi Defi. I don't know what I was gonna say. Uh, drinking coffee, right. Decision fatigue is really real for me. Yes. And I feel like, especially at the end of a long day, or even at the end of a long work week, or honestly, if it's just been a really busy season, month, year, yeah. It, it can really hit you at the, like, most unexpected points where you're like, I just don't, yeah. Like, I just dunno, or I just don't care. I don't wanna make a decision. So when I am at the end of a really long day or something like that, the last thing that I want to do is pick what we eat for dinner. Mm-hmm. Or pick. What TV show to put on. Yeah. Yes. Like, yeah, don't care. Anything like that. Yeah. So I feel like hopefully I'm not the only one that experiences this or not at all. Hopefully we're not the only ones that experienced this, and you guys can relate to this because. There have been some things that I've picked up along the way, first to realize that I'm in that state, like kind of signs and symptoms. Mm-hmm. We'll talk about that in this episode. And then also just some ways to combat it and kind of get ahead of it. Almost like one of our preventative episodes, we know I love those. Yeah. So before we dive into all that, I did wanna talk about. I remember like the first time I heard about this phenomenon was in college. Mm-hmm. And have you ever heard about the decision fatigue relating to judges thing? No. Okay. But I was reading your outline and I was like, no way. Okay. Yeah. So it's actually really crazy. I can't remember what class it was, but I, I have a minor in psychology, so it was probably in some kind of, oh, this is so cool. I forget about that. Thanks. But yeah, so it was probably in some sort of psychology course, but they were talking about this concept of decision fatigue and, and part of what they, the study showed, sorry. The study showed support for decision fatigue, like the idea of it. Mm-hmm. By. Looking at judges. Mm-hmm. And looking at their rulings. Okay. Specifically throughout the day and based on time of day. And so judges who, like if you have like an 8:00 AM case trial or whatever, they're fresh, they're thinking clearly they have all the bandwidth to make whatever decision. Yeah. Assuming they're not like me and they've already had their coffee. But they, like, they're doing well, so they, so they typically will make really sound decisions. Mm-hmm. And not that they're not making sound decisions later, but it's just shown that later in the day, judges will make harsher decisions. It's crazy. So if your trial is at 5:00 PM you're already at a higher likelihood of not getting like acquitted or something, even if you deserve to. And even if you would've gotten acquitted at like 8:00 AM Oh, that's terrible. Isn't that crazy? That's crazy. And the, here's the reason. So the person that's being so the accused, or what's that called in a trial? The, the defendant? Yeah, that sounds right. I think it's good job. So if you're the defendant in the case and your trials later, a lot of the time. Judges have a harder time making a decision in the after, like in the afternoon evening, because they've been making decisions all day. They're tired, their brain is fatigued. Mm-hmm. And so instead of making a decision, which even though we know this is a decision, instead of making a decision, they'll just go with. I'm just gonna keep whatever is already happening. Yeah. Which means like the defendant is already in jail or prison or wherever they are. Mm-hmm. It's way easier to just let the choice that someone else has already made Yeah. Go than make a new choice. Mm-hmm. Because your brain is tired. Yeah. That makes so much sense. Yeah. So, and it is really sad because, I mean. Lawyers literally will try to get cases earlier in the day. Yeah.'cause they have a higher likelihood. Uh, and it's not because har like worse accusations are happening. Like that's not mm-hmm. How it goes. It's not like, oh, we do all the easy stuff in the morning and then like the act, the really terrible stuff in the afternoons and evenings. So it's not like it's correlated because of that. It truly is just. Based off of how busy and tired the judge can be. The judges. That's crazy that that's like a proven statistic or like a study that's been done. Yeah, because I'm like, oh, I feel like then we should be switching off judges. Like every case. Yeah, and I honestly don't know. I can't remember what the study was. I'm sure you could book it up pretty easy on a Google search, but mm-hmm. It's possible that they have made changes since that study. Yeah. I don't know, but I remember at the time that they were saying like, that was a study done. It was a study and that it literally, lawyers would try to, you know, it's not even necessarily trying to rig the system, it's just trying to get in more favorable time zone. Yeah, exactly. No, I think that that's crazy. It makes sense though, because there's. So much decisions that the judge has to make. They've heard so much all day long. They're tired. They're probably hungry. Yeah. Like, and it's, it's not like they're doing it on purpose. I wouldn't imagine that. They're like, oh, four o'clock I wanna get home by four 30. Guilty. Like, right. Well, hopefully it's not that.'cause then you really should not be a judge, but, but yeah, it just makes sense that all the things that happen throughout the day make it so you're less likely to want to make a decision. Yeah. Mm-hmm. I'm not a judge, but I totally relate to that. Like we make Yeah. Thousands, thousands of decisions a day, like micro decisions and mm-hmm. It, yeah, it makes it really, really hard at the end of the day to I hate making decisions. Yeah, me too. Sorry, I totally cut you off. No, I'm, I'm with you. I hate it. I totally hate it. And I think that part of it too, not that we have it worse. Or anything like, oh, we have so much worse than people before. Mm-hmm. But I also think that the amount of stimulation we get from our phones too. Mm-hmm. For instance, I think that we are the most advertised to generation. Oh, we've gotta be Well, so far. Yeah. Because we see ads and sponsors. Everywhere. Yeah, in every piece of media that we consume, it's not just commercial. I, you know what? Maybe it's switched over.'cause I was gonna say, our parents probably saw more commercials than we did. Probably. But even on, I mean, even whenever you're watching Netflix, you still get ads unless you pay for higher one. You still watch videos on YouTube, you still get'em? TikTok, you still get'em? Yes. Yeah, like we still get them. It just has moved platforms, I feel like. Yeah, and on on Instagram. I see ads on there all the time. Yeah. I like hardly see, I feel like. People that I actually know anymore on the feed. Mm-hmm. Oh, I only see them on the stories now. Mm-hmm. But yeah, anyway, so I feel like this is really re hopefully really relatable because we all are attacked with a million decisions a day. Yeah. And it can get to be a lot so. I wanted to talk a little bit about like why we get decision fatigue, what the signs and symptoms are, and then tips for combating it. Yeah, I'm excited. Cool. So we did just talk a little bit about why we get it. So one of them being technology gives us so many choices in any given day. Mm-hmm. That is really difficult. Another one that I wanna talk about, I don't know if you get this as much or not, but. Maybe you do. I don't know. Mm-hmm. But something that holds me back a lot when making decisions is kind of perfectionism or the pressure to decide, right? Yeah. So specifically when, especially when other people are involved. Oh, if it's like, oh, should we go, where should we go to lunch? Yes. I'm like, oh my God, there's hundreds of places that we could go. Yeah. And. But should I take into consideration that this person doesn't eat gluten? Mm-hmm. And this person doesn't like Mexican skin food. Mm. And this person, you know, so it makes it really hard. Yes. And then all of a sudden we're, I'm spending way more mental effort on Yes. One decision than really is needed. Mm-hmm. So, I don't know. I feel like making the right decision is something that is, can make decision fatigue pop up more. Oh, absolutely. When. When it's just me by myself, I feel like I have an easier time making decisions because it's like, well, that's what I wanna do. Yeah. But then when other people are involved, it's always like, who is this gonna please? Everybody is. Who's not gonna like my decision and, and then it just really stresses me out and I'm like, I can't do it. Yeah. Somebody else decide like, I don't want to. Yeah. Even when it's just me and Mason. Yeah. Like, I'll be like, Mason, you have to pick. I, I don't know. Yeah. I also think another reason we get it is when we've really neglected our own, like self-care. At least for me, I think that I am a lot less clearheaded on what I want or what needs to happen. When I haven't been taking care of myself or Yeah. Have kind of been avoiding that. Yeah. So I feel like that's another reason we do. Mm-hmm. I completely agree with you that self care and the making the right decisions and the. Like pressure and things like that can really get to you. So here's the signs. So whenever you kind of notice that that's what's happening, the signs and symptoms of decision fatigue are gonna be procrastination or avoidance. So saying like, I'll just do it later and keep pushing it off. Yeah. Like it, it's funny'cause you always know pushing it off, you know, in the back of your mind that it's a bad idea. Yeah. But you do it anyway because you don't wanna make the decision right now. Yeah. And you just don't wanna have to do it. And yeah. And I'm. Now that I'm thinking about it, I feel like this is also goes back to the judge metaphor. So honestly, sometimes I think they're just pushing off, like extending the decision to the next person. Oh yeah. You know, because then a lot of the time in cases, they'll just extend it 30 days. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. So. I do feel like that is definitely a sign. That one's a really, really big one of mine. And whenever we talk about like ways for combating it, I'll bring that back up. Another one is increased impulsiveness. So online shopping, ordering takeout, being like, oh, let's just stop our ice cream now because I want it. Like things like that. The impulsiveness of the decisions where it really doesn't involve much decision making and you're just saying, let's just do it. That's a big sign, I think, especially when it's outta character. Mm-hmm.'cause when I was thinking about this, I was like, it's very rare for me to be like, let's just stop for ice cream. Mm-hmm. I'm not a big ice cream person. Like Yeah. I don't know it. And you're usually thinking pretty clearly like, we have these things at home and Yeah, exactly. Yeah. But I feel like more recently, lately I've been being like, let's stop for fast food or stop for ice cream, or things like that. Yeah. I'm like, okay, this is actually, I probably just need to. Chill and kind of sort some things in my brain. Yeah. But it's so much easier'cause it's available immediately. You don't have to decide. You're like, oh, we're already driving past it on our way home. Let's just do it. Yeah. Yeah. I think that that is a sign of stress and that is another symptom slash sign of decision fatigue is gonna be stress, burnout, irritability, kind of however that shows in your life the most. And like whatever emotions come up whenever you are feeling that overwhelmness or that. Inability to kind of make that next decision. Yeah. Um, for me, yeah. It's like the stress and then I think that pairs with the impulsiveness. Yeah. I can always tell when I'm like, man, I just wanna go take out my card and just spend a hundred bucks on nothing that I need. Yeah. It's because I'm like, it's a distraction. It's, yeah, it's a distraction. It's easier. You feel better. Even though it's not actually doing anything. Yeah. Yeah. I, and then the last one I had was cons. Like the constant scroll. Mm-hmm. The doom scroll, you know? Yes. If you're finding yourself, I'm finding my, see, when we do episodes like this, a lot of the time it's because this is what we're experiencing and we need to get on top of it. Yeah. But I've been experienced this a lot more. I'm not a big screen time. Phone screen time person. Yeah. I don't doom scroll very often and I have been lately, like I, yeah, I'm finding myself, especially right after work, I'm finding myself sitting on the couch and being like, okay, I'm just gonna give myself 30 minutes to just scroll through. Yeah. And scream or Facebook or whatever it is, watch videos and. That and that's not, it's truly just because I'm like numbing my brain, Uhhuh. But then,'cause you don't wanna do anything else and you don't wanna have to Yes. Figure out what to do next. Yeah. But it's counterintuitive'cause I'm just stimulating it more when Yeah. Really what I need is. To de stimulate it, but yes. I actually think it was in last week's episode. At some point you had made a small comment of like, yeah, I was laying in bed doom scrolling, or like, I was laying on the hatch doom scrolling, and I was like, that's so weird for you. Yeah. I don't feel like you're a doom scroller at all. Yeah. Another one that just came to my mind is, you know, whenever you sit in front of Netflix or Hulu or whatever it is mm-hmm. You are like, what do I wanna watch? And then you spend 30 minutes looking through movies and then you end up just going to bed instead. Yeah. Or just moving on, like you never end up watching anything. Yes.'cause you just can't decide. Probably a sign that you have some decision fatigue. Oh my God, yes. I think that's probably why I rewatch the same shows over and over and over and over and over. It's easier. Yeah. Young girls and friends, I always know those are gonna make me happy and I know right where to find them. Yeah. Other things I'm like, I don't know. We have to pay so much attention, like Right. Do we have enough time to watch an episode about this? Are we gonna be. Interested enough to watch this as like, yeah, like it's so stupid that picking a show or picking a movie to watch still comes with five other decisions. Yeah. But we have so many choices. That's the problem. Yeah. There are so many choices for media. Yes, there are. And it makes the bigger choices, but like it. The fact that we're making so many choices on those small fronts mm-hmm. Make the bigger choices seem even more daunting. Mm-hmm. But we do have some tips for combating decision fatigue. So what the first tip is limiting choices upfront. So we're gonna give a couple examples of this. Mm-hmm. But have you ever heard this idea of decide once? I don't think so. I heard it on a podcast one time and it was kind of like, okay, think of, think of some times when you have, when you. Feel like you regularly have a hard time picking something or you're stressed or whatever, and just decide once for all of those times until it doesn't work for you anymore. Of course. But for example, so often the airport can be stressful for people. Traveling is stressful. Stressful for people, but a lot. A lot of the time we can go into the airport or get on a flight or have a connection or whatever, and then we are kind of bombarded with a lot of choices for what to eat. Oh. And all of us. And we're hungry because we've been traveling all day. Yep. And so this person's, I can't remember who it was, but on the podcast they were saying like, so instead of. Leaving it up to your stressed, tired, hungry self. Mm-hmm. To decide what to eat. Why don't you just decide once that this is your airport food? Yes. I, and like she gave the example of some sort of rice bowl. So it could be like Chipotle or it could be a Qdoba, or it could be what? Whatever. Just like you look and Oh, they've bought rice bowls and that's where I'm going. Or it could be tacos. Okay. You look tacos. That's where I'm going. Uhhuh. And it makes it just a little bit easier. Yeah. So that in that moment, like you already have that thought, that like, I'm not looking at this, I'm not looking at that, I'm not looking at this, I'm going here. Mm-hmm. And it just kind of relieves that burden. Yeah. For your brain, I guess. Yeah. And then the other example she gave was, so, I don't know about you, but when I go into a place like HomeGoods or TJ Maxx or something like that. Those places I feel like are designed to give you decision to dude. Yes. But there's all these things, whatever you're bombarded with, so then you're walking around, whatever. And maybe the example is that you decide at your house. Now, I'm not a good example of this for'cause I don't do this, but like if, if a coffee mug is not white. Black or pink or something like that. Mm-hmm. You're not getting it. Yeah. So you decide, you decide that in your house beforehand, and then anytime you enter a store like TJ Maxx or HomeGoods or mm-hmm. Target or wherever, and you see a mug and you're like, oh, this is so cute. Should I get it? Mm-hmm. Or wait, should I get this one? It's like, okay, it's not white, black or pink. I'm not getting, it's basically like a mental list. Like does it. Is it a part of your mental list? No, don't get it. Yeah, exactly. And you could do it for any uhhuh, any specific thing. Mm-hmm. But those were just kind of the two things that she gave. Yeah. So think about the settings that you're stressed in. Mm-hmm. And that you're likely to feel frustrated by making a decision. Mm-hmm. And then. Advance like plan in advance I guess, for those so that you're limiting that your decision. I think that's five once. Yeah. I think that's really helpful. It, it kind of reminds me, especially whenever you were talking about traveling,'cause I would not think of that in the same category with decision fatigue, even though it totally is like, yeah, There's so many decisions to be made. When traveling. Yeah. And it reminds me that I feel like Mason and I, every single time we travel, we know that we're stopping at QuickTrip in the morning. There you go. So we add in like an extra 30 minutes into our time no matter what, because we know we're stopping at QuickTrip.'cause one of us wants a drink. One, we need to get cash, we need to stop for gas. And one of us wants a snack. Like something like that. Mm-hmm. And I'm like, wow, I didn't even realize that was us. Being like, okay, this is our, this is what we do every single time. Yeah. So that way when we get to the airport, we don't have to say, where do you want to eat? I don't know. Where do you want to eat? Do we have time to eat? Like, and instead of in the morning, every time that you travel, having the conversation of. Do you wanna stop at Quick Trip? Yeah. No, it's, we just do. Yes. It's just a given. Yeah. We'll stop at QuickTrip in the morning. It's always funny. I feel like whenever you've taken us to the airport a couple times, we're like, oh yeah, by the way, can we stop at Quick Trip? We're gonna need it because it's kind of built into our plans. Yeah, yeah. Which is totally fine with me. One time I was like. I think we have time for that, but it's their flight. I'm gonna do what we said. Hey, we built today, girl. We got 15 minutes. Okay. But yeah, that's one example. That's a good idea. Another example of limiting your choices up front is to have a capsule wardrobe. I actually love this idea because mm-hmm. Why is it so hard to pick an outfit? Yeah. And why is that? What takes me 30 minutes every single morning and what makes me late every single morning? Yeah, I don't know why. So like having a capsule wardrobe of just a few t-shirts that, you know, you wear just a few dresses that you know you wear. Like just these easy options. And I actually kind of love doing a capsule wardrobe with like the basics because those are easy to mix sense. I feel like you kind of have a capsule wardrobe. I think I do for the most part. You have some like statement things, but you have a lot of basics that compare with anything. I agree. That's, I think I've done. No, I think I've done a really good job at putting together, like capsule stuff and just making sure I have like these basics. Mm-hmm. But it has been harder as I'm getting more and more pregnant. Yeah. Makes, so I'm like, nothing fits. That makes sense. Like this t-shirt, great capsule t-shirt, basically a sports bra when I wear it when I'm pregnant, but when I'm not pregnant anymore, it's gonna be so cute. Yeah. I've, I've kind of started. On this. Mm-hmm. I did the turn my hangers around thing. Oh yeah. And I'm discovering, first of all, I wear all the same 10 things. Yep. But then also, and I'm giving myself like a whole year. People say six months, but I'm like, but then I'm gonna throw out all my sweaters before winter's here. So true. So anyway, so after like the winter hits it's march that I'm gonna reasses and then honestly I really am just gonna get rid of Wait. I'm excited for you. Yeah. So curious to see how much it is. It's scary though. Like I look at stuff and I'm like, how have I not worn this in five months? I thought I loved that. Like, no, I love this shirt. But yeah, we'll see. Sometimes you have to keep things though that you're like, okay, this is for my crazy night out. Yeah, so true. You can keep like five of the hangers that you have not worn all year. Okay. Yeah. I'll, I'll give myself that choice. Yes. The last way you can limit choices up front is meal prepping, or one of the last ways. Mm-hmm. Meal prep is so helpful. I find that our hardest. I don't know. What do you wanna do? I don't know. What do you wanna do is with meals? Mm-hmm. And so if we don't plan, if we don't plan on like Sunday, plan our meals for the week and then go grocery shopping, and we don't really prep them necessarily because Jared likes doing that during the week. Yeah. But. At least prepping what we're going to be eating. Mm-hmm. Then we don't have the five, six o'clock. Well, what do you want? We could do tacos, we could do spaghetti, we could do, oh my God, we could do honey, garlic, chicken, like whatever. It's like, no, this is what we have on the menu. Yeah. This is what we're doing. So I feel like that's a huge one to help just with everyday life decision fatigue. Oh my gosh. A huge one. I use that one like three times this week where? Me and Mason got late, or he wasn't home yet or I was napping, and so like he had to get dinner started and it was just like a. Normally we would've sat there for so long, like, I don't know, what do you want? I don't know. What do you want? But we were like, we were like, okay, it says it on the list. This is what we're making. And then you end up getting Taco Bell and you're like, oh my God. Yeah. And we're like, oh crap. Now we have all this chicken that went bad at home that we spent$15 on. Like Exactly.'cause of decision fatigue because of decision fatigue. So true. I love the limiting the choices upfront idea. The next kind of big tip that we have for limiting that decision fatigue is setting boundaries with your technology. This is a huge one. I feel like my phone is one of the things that stresses me out the most. Mm-hmm. When I'm in this decision, fatigue. And it's funny'cause like Mason will make fun of me when I don't answer texts or when I have like 15 unread emails. He's like. Like, oh yeah, you just think you're better than everybody else. You just think you're better than everybody else'cause you don't care about your phone. Like, I'm like, no, it's the opposite. I care too much. So I just put it away like it stresses me out too much. I just can't do it and it's not the good way to live. But it's like a sign that of avoiding these things. I was gonna say, maybe it's a sign or symptom as well. Yeah. If you have a million red flags on your phone, I mean it's, yeah. Having like 15 unread messages means that I'm like, I don't know who to respond to first. I don't know how to respond to these messages. I don't know. Like three of them are asking me to do something. I don't know what to say. Like, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And so me putting it away and not responding is literally avoidance. Yeah. And just saying like, I can't do it right now. I'll do it later. At last, I never do it. Yeah. So setting boundaries with tech is a great idea. Something I have personally done with this is turn off notifications. Mm-hmm. Especially for specific apps. So like Netflix, I would get notifications for it and I'm like, I don't need these notifications about what movies are coming next and what TV shows I should pick back up on. Mm-hmm. So I turned that off. Mm-hmm. Because opening my phone and seeing my little like control board or whatever, and seeing that I have 50 notifications from. Netflix was stressing me out so bad. Yeah, so going through and turning off notifications, especially for apps that you do not need notifications from, but like you wanna have on your phone. Mm-hmm. And then even like controlling where the notifications go on your phone can be a really good idea. Yeah. So like some of them, for example, my emails, I know I still want notifications from my emails, but I don't want them to like. Pop up as a down banner. Mm-hmm. When I get them, I just want them to stay in my little, I don't know what you call this, like your notification center. Okay. So that's why I have my emails go is to my notification center. So when I look at it, do you see that? Oh my god. I know I have turned off so many notifications already. Clear. There you go. That feels good. I dunno. Does that make sense? Yeah, totally. I, I know for me, I definitely turn notifications off and pick and choose. Mm-hmm. What I see, honestly, I'm so sorry if you guys text me, because I'm pretty much always on do not disturb. I know sometimes I get offended, I'm like, ah, notify anyway. Okay. But I, you actually go through even on do Not disturb, so that's hilarious. I know. I think. Because I also have you on my like, notify anyway, even when I'm not disturb. And, but I sometimes I do see it on yours, so I'm like, I always wonder if it's whenever you're, I will, I will manually turning it on or something. Um, so I will say whenever, so there's, you know how there's a bunch of different options. Yeah. So like personal driving or no personal and do not disturb. I do have you like. Through. Mm-hmm. But sleep and driving don't put people through like anybody. Oh yeah. I'm pretty sure. Um, I think that I could change it, but why would I, if I'm sleeping or I'm driving the only one I have on the sleep one, I have the sleep one on every single night, which also helps with decision fatigue, I feel like. Yeah, because. Yeah. Then I don't have to worry after like 10:00 PM if people are needing me. Yes. But the only people I have on sleep that go through is Mason and Mom. Smart. Yeah. I'm like, these are like just in case of emergency kind of uhhuh. Yeah. So I definitely do that. Something that I also started, it's been a Life Saver. I think I heard about it two or three years ago, but the Unroll Me app, I mentioned it on a podcast episode before. But it will filter your email for you. Oh, and so you know how you click unsubscribe and then you still get emails from them? Sometimes. Yes. It's gonna take one to two weeks. I swear they don't actually unsubscribe it. No. And then, and then you like it takes you to another page and you have to check all these boxes to make sure that you're unsubscribed from everything and not just whatever. It's confusing, but Unroll me will pop it. It. You go into that app and it will populate anything that you are subscribed to. It's amazing. Mm-hmm. And you can click unsubscribe or you can put it in your rollup, which you get a rollup every day and it shows you like the things that you miss, but you get'em all at once. So basically all those subscriptions, things that maybe you do wanna see at some point, or you wanna have the opportunity to see. Mm-hmm. You don't just want it to automatically like delete it for you. Yeah. Those you can put in your rollup. Honestly, I don't really use that that much. I have a couple things in my rollup. Mm-hmm. But otherwise I just go through unsubscribe. Unsubscribe and it actually will unsubscribe you and delete the, I don't know if it deletes them or archives them or what, where it puts them, but it takes them out of your inbox. And for me, this is so helpful because for a while I, you know, I love listening to podcasts and things like that, and I was. So I was, and still am, subscribed to quite a few, like health influencer mm-hmm. Newsletters and so I would be getting recipes and I would be getting. Suggestions for supplements, and I would be getting like protein ideas mm-hmm. And places to buy yoga mats and stuff like that. Mm-hmm. And so, and those are all things that in theory, I like the idea of having the opportunity to see that. Yeah. But then I was realizing this is just cluttering my brain because I'm having to decide do I buy that yoga mat? Do, should I make this recipe or this recipe? Should I, yeah. Like, and it was just, oh. Is that supplement better than the one that I'm taking? Mm-hmm. Should I be, is that protein better than the one I'm I'm on right now? Yeah. That all, like the technology gives you too many choices. There's too many ads. Yeah. Yeah. And so even though in theory, having a bunch of health influencers in my inbox sounds great. Yeah. For me it wasn't Uhhuh and so anyway, so Unroll me helps with that. I mean. It does everything. It doesn't just do health influencers uhhuh, but, but enroll me is I think, like such a huge lifesaver. I'll link it in the show notes, but yes, please do. I would definitely say that's a big way that you can set boundaries with your technology. I like that one. I think the last one on setting boundaries with your technology is just turning on those app limits. Mm-hmm. So if you really find yourself Zoom scrolling a lot, turn it on on your TikTok, turn it on on your Twitter. Whatever it is that you really find yourself Al spending a lot of time on mine is randomly Pinterest. Mm-hmm. I like can spend hours on Pinterest and I think it's just'cause it's showing me so many different things. I don't, I literally think Pinterest is the lazy way for my brain to rock because I don't actually have to pay attention. I don't actually have to listen. Like how sad is that? That I'm just looking at images and it's like filling my brain rot. Yeah. Because I don't have to pay attention or listen or decide if I'm gonna like it, or it's like ridiculous. But no, that's funny. I think that turning on app limits can be a really good idea, especially if you do find yourself doom scrolling a lot, or you find yourself. A lot of ad fatigue and things like that. Mm-hmm. So our third big, so first we had limit choices up front. Second was set B boundaries with tech. Our third big tip is batching decisions. I love this one because anytime you plan like a bunch of decisions in advance. I feel like it's so helpful. Yeah. For, for me, the best time to do this is Sunday morning. Mm-hmm. Because I feel like that's when I'm freshest. Yeah. Okay. I'm the furthest away from work that I've been, you know, and, and I still have, you know, I still have, yeah. Just that energy. Like right after my Sunday morning coffee, I can make decisions about what we're going to eat for the week. Yeah. I can make decisions about. What our plans are in the evenings, whatever. Mm-hmm. This is a time, like you said, that outfits are really tough for you. Mm-hmm. I don't think that that's actually something that I struggle with that much. Yeah.'cause like I said, I kind of have the same basic work outfits that I wear all the time. Yeah. And I'm not pregnant, so, but this would be a good time for you to be like, okay, this is what I'm gonna wear. And even like, get it out if you want. Mm-hmm. And just like kind of make the decision for the week so that on Tuesday morning or Thursday morning when you're not as fresh and you're. A lot more tired from the week or whatever. Yeah. It's already there. It's already there and it's ready to go and you don't have to worry about it. Mm-hmm. I really like that idea. I think it's also a good way to like. Make your meals and do your grocery list and things like that. Yeah, so batch decisions, great ideas. If you have kids, this is a great time to prep their snacks or their lunches. Mm-hmm. I've been making sandwiches for all these little bridal showers that I've been helping with that are in the shape of whatever their theme is. Yeah. And I recently learned that you can do like sheet pan. PB and js, and it makes it so much easier to batch them. That's amazing. So like if you have kids and you like to make them like PB and js, you can get outta sheet pan, but bread everywhere. Uhhuh, but peanut butter, jelly, peanut butter, put it together, put it in the freezer, and then it's like basically like an uncrustable. By the time you and by the, when you put it in their lunchbox, by the time it gets to lunch, it's. Melted, what's the word? Preparing day? Defrosted. Oh, oh, okay. Yeah, yeah. Haw out. Haw. It's haw. Yeah. So anyway, so like this is a great time to do something like that so that in the morning you're not sitting there with your kids' lunchbox. Like, what do I do? Oh, I don't, I don't really have time to make them whole Pbb and J. Okay, here's a rice crispy and. I don't know. Yeah, I don't have kids. I recently went through and did the, I know, I love that you don't have kids, but you're like making PP and js. That's so funny. All these parties I recently went through and have been updating our calendar like Mason and I's Calendars. Yes. For like the full month.'cause we have just been getting so busy. There's so many different plans. He's doing so many things. I'm doing so many things and like I'm like, okay, I need to have this all planned out in one spot. And I specifically, we've been doing what we are calling our nesting nights. And I blocked off every single Friday. I told him at the beginning of, I mean we've been doing it since like July now, but I told him every single Friday we like do not make any plans. We are spending time at home doing things for the baby. Smart. Yeah. And then. On top of that, I went through and I planned out what we were doing every single Friday. There you go. As these baby items so that when he says, oh, what are we doing tonight for the baby? I can click it and say, okay, it looks like tonight we're finalizing our birth plans and we're packing our hospital bags. I'm like, here's what we're doing. It feels so good, and it made me feel like. Like all these 84 items on my nesting checklist. Yeah. Instead of being like, what do we do tonight? I don't know. There's so many options. I don't really wanna do one of these things like blah, blah, blah. Instead I'm like, sorry to planned out. Yeah. This is what we're doing. Yeah. It relieves your brain. It really does. Yeah.'cause I did it all at once. With his batches. That's so smart. Mm-hmm. That kind of brings me, I'm, I wanna ask you a question about this. Yeah. Because it kind of brings me to the fourth tip. So third tip was bashing the decisions. Fourth is timing your decisions. Yes. At a good time. I'm wondering, did you make that list when you had like really good energy a lot? Oh yeah. A lot of brain power. Oh yes. Okay. I did it at like 11:00 AM on like a Wednesday or something when I was like, okay, there's not really much going on at work. I know what to do. Nice, nice. Yeah. Yeah. So I could not have done that on a Saturday, like, or on a, on a Friday night. I couldn't have done that. Yes. Yeah. Like those are the days where I'm like, I can't do anything. Yes. So I couldn't have, so I feel like this is a good time, this is a good time to assess like, okay, what days of the week, what times of the day. Are your best brain power hours? Yes. I know for me, like between nine and noon, I'm really alert pretty with it right after my coffee and I, and yeah. And so those are my best times to like be making decisions. Yeah. So anytime, especially like with my work life, if I'm having to make decisions about. Oh, am I gonna call this person? Am I gonna, whatever? Yeah. Where am I gonna put this blood drive? That sort of thing. Then I prefer to make those before I break for lunch. Mm-hmm. Because my brain power is better. Mm-hmm. But then also on the weekends, I try, I try to, if I'm like planning things for like our life or our personal life or something. Yeah. Try to talk with Jared about those. Earlier in the day rather than later, because by then I'm I, and honestly, when I'm in a point of decision fatigue later in the day, it makes me grumpier and grumpier to make a decision or to even talk about. Yes. Yes. So I'd. I'd rather get it done earlier when I have a better attitude about it. No, I'm in the exact same boat. I'll find myself like, like let's say at 11:00 AM on a Tuesday or whatever. I'll find myself texting Mason being like, okay, here's everything that's going through my brain right now. Let me know whenever you have some time to discuss. And then he'll be like, okay, I have a meeting at this time. I'll get back to you with these answers at this time. And I say, okay, perfect. And then so that way like we're making those decisions when I have the mental capacity to make these decisions. Yeah. Like it, it reminds me that literally earlier this, no, it was, no, it was this week. Earlier this week, we have our nephew's birthday coming up and one of our friend's daughter's birthday's coming up, and it's not until September 6th, but I was like, listen, we need to buy their presents now. Because if we don't Yeah. We're not buying them until September 6th. Yeah. And that's bad. So I was like, here's my thoughts for presents. Any ideas? And he's like, Nope, that sounds good. And I'm like, okay, cool. I bought them. It's done. Great. Decisions made. There you go. There you go. Yeah. I think that that's, yeah, it's important to time or decisions. Mm. And yeah, figure out when is a good time. Yes. So fifth and final suggestion for when you're combating decision fatigue. I called this like the power of pause, but just like when you remove something temporarily, it doesn't have to be forever, but to make space for something else. So the example that I gave here, I was thinking about myself, but like this weekend I'm like, I decided not to drink alcohol because I just feel like I have so much to do and I just feel like. It would inhibit my ability to get those things done, even though in theory it sounds like, oh, it'll, it'll be a stress reliever, whatever. Yes. I feel like in theory or in reality, it's just gonna like, kind of push things off. Yes. But I also think like, if it doesn't have to be alcohol, but like, uh, this is a good, just a good example in my life. Like if you are spending all your weekends, like you're. You know, you're working through the week to get to the weekend to have fun and whatever. Mm-hmm. But you really want a new job, let's say. Mm-hmm. Like maybe it would benefit you to just take the weekend off from drinking or even like happy hours with friends or whatever it is. Yeah. Just pause on that. It's just a pause. It's not a quit. Yeah. Pause on that and take the week. Like use that time that you would be going out and doing those things instead to like apply to some jobs or rework your resume or something like that. And if you do that for three or four weeks. More than likely, like you're gonna be making some progress, right? Yeah, absolutely. On by having those weekends open. Mm-hmm. And making some efforts toward that, you know? Yeah. So that's one example. And then another, another pause example that you could use is like, okay, pause, don't make plans for Fridays. Mm-hmm. Like remove the option of making plans on Friday nights. Mm-hmm. And do a nesting night. I, I didn't realize that was an example until just now, but, but I feel like there is a lot of power in like removing something so that you can fill it with something else. Mm-hmm. Just for the time being. Yeah. I completely agree. I like the idea of like, pausing to take time for yourself.'cause it reminds me of like on Sunday, if I don't, the house is not clean and the laundry is still needing to be done, I just know it's gonna sit there. Throughout like the actual week when I don't have the time or the ability to do that. Mm-hmm. So sometimes there will be days where Mason's like, oh, do you wanna do this on a Sunday? And I'm like, I'm gonna be honest. Like, I really don't wanna make any plans because I just need to get this stuff done. Yes. So I'm like, if, if I don't get this stuff done. Today it's gonna really affect me. Yeah. And I'm not gonna feel good about it. Yeah. So I'll just tell'em sometimes, like, I am gonna be honest. You can do whatever you want to do today, but don't include me in those plans because I'm not doing it. It cau, it causes stress. Mm-hmm. It for me, I don't know if this feeling is something you can relate to, but it kind of wells up inside of me and it feels like it's building up and then it's like above my head and I'm like, ah. And I've been feeling like that. Well, since we got back from Charleston, we've had. Just a lot of, I, I've been doing a really good job of leaving my weekends open. Mm-hmm. But we've had a lot of plans that are unavoidable on the weekends, like showers and birthdays Yeah. And things like that. And so we, I haven't had my normal, like few hours to myself to just get the house in order and like do some chores. And even like grocery shopping has been happening on Mondays instead of Sundays and things like that. And so it's kind of been this thing where I'm like looking around and I'm like, you see the dog hair and then you see the laundry, and then you see the dishes, and then you see the empty fridge and you, and it just all kind of like starts to stack. And then I start to be like, oh, I can't breathe. Like it's stressing me out and it makes me, it, it makes me get to a point where I don't even know where to start. And that is decision fatigue. Yeah. 100% decision fatigue. So I feel like, yeah, just. Just eliminating something. Mm-hmm. So that you can fill it with something else that's gonna like fill your cup and Yeah. Make you feel a little bit less like you're drowning Yes. Is gonna help with decision fatigue a ton. Mm-hmm. I completely agree. I think that, yeah, decision fatigue is gonna pop. All the time. Like, like you said earlier, I liked whenever you said there's so many micro decisions to be made throughout the day. Mm-hmm. Like legitimately so much. You're picking a TV show, do you have enough time to watch it? Are you gonna be interested enough? Does your partner wanna watch it? Is it clean enough for your kids to watch? Like those are all such micro decisions that you have to decide when making the big decision of what TV show are you gonna watch. Yeah. Like it's silly, but it is true. So there's so many micro decisions that you do have to make every single day. That decision fatigue is kind of like unavoidable, but these are tips of how to counteract it or how to notice when it's coming up so you can plan better for yourself. Um, that's why I have been planning these months in advance of being like, we need to do this. Mm-hmm. Like I said, okay, as Amanda Beckett's birthday parties are on the sixth, so on the 22nd of August, we need to be ordering the presents. Mm-hmm. Because if we let it go any longer, we're not gonna make these decisions. Yeah. So like. So it's kind of unavoidable because there are millions of decisions to be made, as we've talked about. But I just, yeah, I just think that these are really good tips and tricks of how to prepare yourself and what to do when you find yourself in these situations. Definitely. And I will just because. I know we're wrapping up. Mm-hmm. But just because you said something that jogged something in my brain. Yeah. But the power pause thing, something else that you can do if you do have kids. I, you just brought up like Esme and Beckett. Yeah. So it reminded me of that. But something you can do when if you have kids is. I don't know. I think sometimes parents feel so much pressure to do all these things and like have their kids in all these activities. Yeah. And take them on play dates and take them places and whatever. But something that's really valuable for them to learn is that it is okay to sit and stop and, yeah. Not. Be going, going, going. And so maybe there's a season that you have to say, like, pause something with your kids even mm-hmm. Where you're like, we are not, we, you get one sport. We're not doing soccer and basketball and volleyball. Like, we're not doing all these things. Yes. You get one sport and we're gonna pause the rest. Or even like, Hey, we're gonna take the season off. Mm-hmm. Sweetie. Like, I, I don't know. I think that, obviously I'm not a parent, so I don't know how well that goes over. Yeah. But I just think that it. Is it's okay to teach your child that, hey, we're in a really busy season. In order to take care of ourselves, we're gonna take a pause. Yeah. We need to slow down on, yeah. We're gonna just, yeah. Pause on some of these things and that way we can fill those things with time together or mm-hmm. Getting more sleep. Or, you know, whatever the thing is that you're re mm-hmm. That you're refilling that time with, I think that it would help. I mean, it helps teach them too, and it helps you because Yeah. You're not running yourself rab Yeah. And you probably become such a better parent. I, when you're slowing down again and being like, hold on, we're kind of drowning. Right. Let's, let's not just get our head above water, but like, let's get outta the water. Yeah. And maybe you're, you're not blowing up at your kid as much, you know, whenever. You have to make a decision finally. I don't know. Yeah. I just, this all theoretical, but I could see it. Yeah, I, I can see it. Who knows? Maybe in five years I'll be like, Morgan, that was terrible advice. You can't do that, but Sure. But right now it sounds good. Yeah. Y'all, y'all can let me know now if you have kids and you're like, she's crazy. But anyway, so those are top five tips. Mm-hmm. Hopefully they help, hopefully. Pressing play on this episode wasn't a hard decision for you. No. All you had to do was place play. Yeah, exactly. Well, decisions. Yeah. But I think that that is everything. Yeah, I think so too. Make sure you guys share this with whoever needs to benefit from it. So you're sharing it with your husband and saying, Hey, we need to start doing this. Mm-hmm. Or you're sharing it with your best friend. You're like, oh my God. Do you ever feel like this too? Like how? How can we help each other? Yeah. Whoever you're sharing it with. First of all, thank you for sharing it. Second of all, I hope it helps. Yes. Mm-hmm. All right, well, we will see you next week. See you next week. Cheers. Cheers. Ooh, woo hoo. That was kind of a long one. I didn't realize it was.