Cognitive Fatigue - Idea Creation vs Editing and Refining

The brain works differently when creating an idea than it does when making finalizing decisions regarding that idea. While creation can be uplifting decision making can contribute to fatigue. But we can't and shouldn't avoid making decisions. So how can we reduce our decision fatigue? Find out in today's episode.

Transcript

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Hello and welcome to Small Steps to Wellbeing with me, your host Stephen Davis from Interactive Therapy. In today's episode about cognitive fatigue, I'll be talking briefly about the different brain processes that are involved in creativity and generation of ideas versus those engaged during a more evaluative or editing process. The reason why these differences may be important are because evaluative processes or decision making to put it in simpler terms are much more dominant in our everyday lives, and it's argued that they could be more taxing as well as less enjoyable and calming for our brain in general. But let's start by considering creativity and idea generation. Now when was the last time that you really let your mind wander and allowed your creative mind to run riot on a work or passion project? Perhaps you were brainstorming a new business idea, or talking with a friend or partner about exotic holiday plans? Maybe you were playing Lego or doing something artistic with your children, allowing yourself to be experimental and not interested in the outcome. Or maybe you provided yourself sufficient time to work on a current project so that you felt yourself getting into the zone, or flow state of mind, as it was first called by the psychologist Mihai Chitsemihai. Can you remember the last time you felt yourself getting into a flow state? How did that feel for you? Most people who experience flow in work or play relate to it as being an almost effortless experience. They may lose track of time, being engaged for hours while it may only feel like they were busy for minutes. They may feel energized by their efforts and enthusiastic to get back into it again as soon as possible. Now research has demonstrated that there are certain conditions required for us to enter into a flow state. I'll go into that in more detail in a future episode of Small Steps. Now it's been observed that while in flow, the brain is firing neural networks from multiple sites, scanning associative memories and context-based references to determine what patterns or pieces of past information may link together in service of the task at hand. Your brain is in output mode, with the options only limited by the scope of your imagination. Now compare this to the reflective process of editing and decision making, that is definitely required in most projects, but also frequently throughout your day. Decision making processes differ most distinctly from creative processes as decisions have been demonstrated to activate emotional centers of the brain, meaning that you don't only think about what you will or won't do next, but also feel it. You may also potentially start making judgments about the decisions being good, bad or neutral, and all this being dependent on your own rational framework of understanding of the world. Let's also consider the sheer volume of decisions now facing the average person. What should I wear? What should I eat and how do I know it's healthy? When should we meet and where? Which telephone contract, insurance policy or energy provider is the best? How can I save enough money for retirement? Which hobbies are the most fulfilling? And what is my purpose in life? All these decisions are highly dependent on the perspectives throughout which we view them. So the emotional investment can vary dramatically. And this is really just the tip of the iceberg. In his book The Paradox of Choice, the author Barry Schwartz explains that while the initial belief behind increased choice in everything from groceries to subjects you can study was once provided to give us more freedom, it also has significant downsides. I just spoke about the emotional energy required, but it's also important to know that when you finally make your decision about whatever topic is currently grabbing your attention, your brain will have likely started preparing pathways for all available choices. And you are now expected to forget the ones you opted against, regardless of how confident you were in your decision. The brain doesn't forget. Rather, pathways simply fade over time through the lack of use. The unfortunate truth is that we are forced into decision making mode multiple times per day, probably even per hour, which if not properly managed can lead to what is referred to as decision fatigue, and thus cognitive fatigue in the general sense. We become tired of making decisions and as a consequence can become avoidant of the behavior, allowing things to happen to us rather than being informed about what may benefit us more in the long term. This then highlights the biggest discrepancy between idea creation and refining those ideas. Decision making is habitual, whereas creativity is often a process that we need to create time and space to engage with. So consider now, how often do you give yourself time to create? Or maybe more importantly, how can you give yourself enough time to create? It's time to focus on today's exercise, in which I'd like you to experiment with a way of reducing your decision-making requirements. As always, this is a small step, so it'll be focused in nature, but can be repeated as needed to compound those small steps into meaningful change. Pick an activity that you repeat on a daily basis, such as deciding what to eat. Now consider how you can make this activity less decision heavy. This could be accomplished by planning a full 7-day meal plan one week in advance, meaning that you bundle decision making into one sitting and you are only left preparing meals rather than thinking about what you want beforehand. Or to take it a step further, maybe you're happy with a fixed menu, eating the same breakfast, lunch and dinner on a fixed day of each week. It can also be interesting to consider how either of these options could have a knock-on effect on your shopping habits. If you know what you're eating and when, you'd know exactly what ingredients you need to have on your shopping list before you leave the house. Try this exercise and see what a small reduction in decision making can do for your own cognitive health. Good luck, and I'll see you in the next episode.