Making countless decisions each day could be wrecking your fat loss results. Here’s how to avoid decision fatigue and simplify the process.

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Being a parent is a constant barrage of decision making.

• Which shoes should your kid wear to school?
• What are they eating for dinner?
• When should we finally give up the dream that your daughter is pretty good at soccer, but ain’t playing in the World Cup any time soon?

As a stay at home dad, I’ve been positioned into the role of making all of the decisions throughout the day.

Pretty much all by myself, too.

This is on top of the nonstop decision-making that we need to make as just normal folks trying to handle this adulting thing without burning out.

• What should I wear today?
• When will I have time to workout with these crazy kids taking up my time?
• What am I eating today?

Everything from which side of the street we walk on to whether you should hold in that fart until you get to the bathroom to hide the stench.

We make an estimated 35,000 decisions throughout our day

Yeah, you read that correctly (here’s the source).

On top of that, Cornell University estimates that we make something like 230 decisions on food alone every single day.

It’s no wonder we’re all incredibly anxious and worn out and ready to smash our head into a wall on a daily basis.

We’re tired. Tired of making so many decisions.

So, today we’re going to discuss some ways to reduce decision fatigue and simplify your life a bit.

Doing so will promote more freedom in your day with less anxiety.

More time to focus on your health and fitness.

Or even just more stress-free time to relax without having to make 17,461 decisions to get there.

Let’s get into it.

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President Obama kept his wardrobe boring. Pretty much the same shirt and tie combo just about every single day he was in office.

Besides that ridiculous tan suit situation. We’ll just ignore that whole fiasco.

But he famously did so to help remove decision fatigue:

“You’ll see I wear only gray or blue suits,” Obama said. “I’m trying to pare down decisions. I don’t want to make decisions about what I’m eating or wearing. Because I have too many other decisions to make.”

As the leader of the Free World who makes non-stop choices all day long, having to stop to think about what to wear everyday was one more daunting decision to add to the to-do list.

So he eliminated it.

He kept his fashion simple and didn’t have to think about it.

This is what you need to do.

While you aren’t making life-altering decisions that have ripple effects for the world and all time, you still make plenty of choices throughout your day.

When we have a ton of choices to make, it’s easy to find the more convenient options, even if these simpler options move us in the opposite direction of our goals.

Classic signs of decision fatigue

It’s quite, and human, to go through periods of overwhelm. And when that happens, if you’re being pushed into the role of decision making, it can lead to burnout.

This can happen over time.

So many choices and so many decisions to make day in and day out can lead to total burnout. You’re tired of trying to figure out what dress to wear and what to say in your next email.

As a result, you might shut down altogether and check out of the decision making process. Or follow along some of the classic signs of decision fatigue:

Procrastination

You put off the decision making process for later. Perhaps you will get to it. Maybe not. Or you will move from procrastination to one of the other signs.

Impulsivity

Making a rash decision that’s based on little actual evidence or facts. You’re just rushing the process to get it over with and checked off your list.

Avoidance

Skipping the decision altogether. You simply cannot handle this right now and you ignore the process. Perhaps never to return.

At this point, it’s a gamble that maybe things will work themselves out on their own.

Indecision

Waffling between various options without full commitment. It’s like playing eenie … meenie … miney … moe with major life decisions.

Let’s play this out in action.

What decision fatigue looks like

It’s the end of the day, you’ve had a stressed out, long and just stupid day. Inbox was hell. Traffic and the commute was awful. Kids were acting up and being assholes. But guess what, you’ve still got to make dinner.

And you have no idea what to make.

Decisions, decisions.

Instead of opting for the safer choice of a grilled chicken with some vegetables and rice, you’re stressed out and can’t even think about that right now. You opt for fast food.

It was the convenient choice.

And you know the fast food won’t serve you well as you try to lose a few pounds. But it doesn’t matter. You’ve hit decision fatigue and have given in to the urge to splurge.

Our goal is to limit these situations; we’ll never completely eliminate them from life altogether.

But, if you can build some structure into your day, week and month, you’ll have to make fewer decisions throughout.

Structure promotes freedom

In order to build that structure, you’ll need to trust yourself and stop second-guessing every single little thought and choice.

Overthinking on simple things can snowball and lead to eventual burn out that prevents you from being sharp enough to act and think about the bigger stuff.

Which is one of the reasons why President Obama made the wardrobe so easy. One less thing he had to think about.

Limiting your options to decision making

Fewer choices on things mean fewer decisions to make. You’ve built into the system a way to prevent overthinking if you simply don’t have many options at your disposal.

Let’s put this into action.

It’s breakfast time and everyday you’ve got 10 different foods that you enjoy for breakfast, everything from protein oatmeal to a smoothie to egg whites and bacon. Every single day it is a dizzying array of tasty choices.

You get stuck in neutral trying to figure out which breakfast you’ll enjoy today. So you start the process of elimination. Which is essentially overthinking the whole thing.

You start narrowing down which food is easier to prepare that morning. Analyzing what your taste preference is for that day. Start going down the rabbit hole of the food available to you for the rest of the day.

That might even lead to a tangent about what you want to make for dinner.

You get the picture.

If you are a busy parent and trying to slam everything into a single day without losing your mind, you need to have some more respect for your mind and make things easier.

Remove the majority of choices for breakfast from that 10 meal rotation. Stick with one or two for now.

Fewer choices mean fewer decisions to make.

Delegate decisions

For my entrepreneurs of the group, this is super important.

You simply cannot be making every single little decision about menial things in your business. Once you can afford to do so, start outsourcing some of the smaller tasks in your day to day.

Then empower those hires to be able to make the small decisions.

If your goal is to create a strong business that makes six or seven figures, you simply should not be spending any amount of time thinking about choices that are in the small money categories.

Build out your systems so you don’t need to make a ton of decisions. Make new hires and train them properly in your systems so you don’t need to micromanage. Then trust them to make those decisions since you’ve built sound systems.

You spend the time on the big rocks and use that energy to grow your business.

Simplify your life

Focus on the things that matter. The priorities in your life.

Make a list of things that you like to do and a separate column of things that you hate. If you hate it and can remove it altogether … then eliminate it. Or outsource it.

Make things simple. Remove things that are not serving you from your day to day.

Plan your day the night before

This is an exercise that I work on with all of my online coaching clients.

I encourage them to spend five to 10 minutes at the end of each day to plan the following day. Everything from when they will workout to what they will be eating.

Doing so serves a few purposes:

1. It’s a bit of a brain dump that allows you to get all of your tasks and projects out of your mind and on paper.

This kind of release can help improve your sleep quality. You won’t be tossing and turning thinking about all of the things you have to do when you wake up.

Instead, you can sleep soundly knowing that you have an action plan.

2. And that action plan simplifies the day for you.

It provides a roadmap to keep you on track.

From a fat loss perspective, you’ll be much less inclined to stuff your facehole with a random lunch option if you already have your lunch planned for the day ahead of time.

You’ve removed the decision making process and can focus on the countless other things on your to do list.

Set deadlines

Parkinson’s Law states that work will expand to fit the amount of time allotted.

In other words, if you give yourself a week to complete a project, you’ll likely need the week. But, if you give yourself a deadline of 48 hours, you’ll still meet that deadline after creating a deeper sense of urgency.

You can see how this works against you if you never give yourself a deadline. No deadline pretty much means no rush to complete the project.

Create a goal. Develop the habits that will help you achieve that goal. Then set out the deadlines for you to learn and practice those habits so you can meet your deadlines, and eventually your goals.

For more on goal setting, check out this article on how to make more meaningful objectives.

Prioritize your health

As sleep quality declines, your ability to think clearly and decisively will wane, too.

Not to mention, poor sleep can wreck your fat loss progress.

Make sure that you are setting time aside every single day for some time of movement (strength training, walking, yoga, hiking, playing a sport, etc.). This will help you sleep better at night.

Improve your nutrition if you haven’t done so already. Higher quality diets based on lean proteins and tons of nutrient-dense foods will improve your cognitive performance, too.

All of this ties together.

Which is why I take a holistic approach with my Lean4Life Academy in what we call the Daily DOSE:

• Diet
• Mindfulness
• Sleep
• Exercise

The four pillars of long-term health.

Handle these every single day and it will go a long way towards helping you think and act with more intention.

How do you remove decision fatigue to help your fat loss journey?

Keep things simple. And then establish a routine. Because building a structure around foods and routines that work for you is how you’ll eliminate many of the decisions you have to make throughout the day.

We’ll start with the workout piece.

You’ve likely been conditioned to think that your workouts need to be punishing and brutal and rapid-paced and ready to make your heart explode.

This is not true.

You do not need to workout for hours on end to see results.

Many of my online coaching clients embrace a minimalist approach to training. We train just two to three times per week. And then aim to walk a ton every day.

One way to make this work for you is to set a specific time every single day for your movement

It can be first thing in the morning, or lunchtime or after work.

Doesn’t matter, as long as this is convenient for you and your schedule.

Whenever this is, block that time off every single day. Make it consistent. Our body responds better when we have more of a set routine and can fall into natural circadian rhythm patterns.

If you have 30 minutes to move per day … awesome. If it is more … cool. But, block off that time every day and fill it with movement.

It can be your regularly scheduled strength training routines a few times per week. On days that you aren’t picking up heavy things, use the time to go for an extended walk or practice some mobility exercises.

Or you could use the time to practice a new skill (like learning a handstand) or play a sport (like a rec league for basketball or softball).

But the key will be to sit down, break down what you want to do, establish the minimal effective does to getting there, then simplifying this stuff as much as possible so it’s hard to miss.

And scheduling that daily movement will help make it routine.

You’ll be far less likely to skip and miss workouts if it’s just part of your day to day.

And you’ll have fewer decisions to make about what you’re training on a specific day if you have a quality strength training program designed for you.

The real money comes from simplifying your nutrition

You need to built systems and strategies to remove the countless food decisions you need to make on the regular.

I preach to my clients about finding the staple meals.

That’s exactly what you must do.

Start with breakfast. For the record, I don’t care when you eat your first meal of the day, and meal timing doesn’t matter for fat loss (calorie deficits and all).

That first meal (whenever it is) sets the tone for the rest of the day.

If the first thing you stuff into your face hole is junk, it typically snowballs into a day of eating like an asshole, right?

Ideally, you’ll look for a breakfast that checks all of the boxes:

• Easy to make
• Packs about 20-30 grams of protein
• Delivers a dose of fiber and plenty of nutrients
• Fills you up for a few hours until your next meal

Get really good at making this breakfast meal. Make it everyday if you have to do so. It becomes so routine that you can make it blindfolded.

Congrats. You’ve now removed one decision you need to make around food choices. You have a healthy and balanced go-to meal for breakfast that doesn’t take any thought.

Now, you do the same for lunch. And make sure it continues to check all of those same boxes as breakfast.

Eventually, yes … you can branch out and develop a couple of variations for both meals.

If you go to a lot of work lunches, find a few go-to restaurants that you can frequent and find a few staple meals you can turn to in a pinch.

Then add in a portable snack that you can include with a little protein and fiber. I like going with an apple and some string cheese. Protein. Dietary fats. Fiber. Filling.

When you automate your meals like this, it removes how often you need to think about them.

And if you can remove these tiny little decisions throughout your day, you’ll spend less time overthinking.

It will provide more clarity, more structure and eventually … more freedom.

Let me help you learn how to avoid decision fatigue … 

I’m here to help you out. 

If you have any questions, reach out. I answer all of my emails at pete [at] petecataldo [.] com … Hit me up with the subject line “Decision Fatigue” and I’ll answer any questions you have to make this work for you.

Or you can hit me up anytime on the socialz on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

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