Decision Fatigue: Making Choices with Confidence

In this episode of "Get Over Your Shit," host Malinda Watt delves into the pervasive issue of decision fatigue that plagues many entrepreneurs and digital course creators. With her unique blend of empathy and expertise, Malinda outlines the root causes of decision fatigue and provides invaluable strategies for overcoming it.

Malinda begins by defining decision fatigue and how it impacts mental capacity, leading to procrastination and impulsive decision-making. She emphasizes the importance of simplifying daily choices to conserve mental energy. Some of the actionable advice includes creating routines for minor decisions and utilizing decision-making frameworks like the Eisenhower Matrix and Pareto Principle. By doing so, entrepreneurs can shift focus to high-priority tasks and avoid mental burnout.

Key Takeaways:

• Understanding Decision Fatigue: Mental exhaustion from constantly making decisions can lead to procrastination and impulsive choices.
• Simplify Daily Decisions: Automate minor choices and use frameworks like the Eisenhower Matrix and Pareto Principle to focus on high-priority tasks.
• Delegation and Automation: Leverage tools and templates to reduce decision-making load, even as a solopreneur.
• Align Decisions with Core Values: Make choices that resonate with your values to enhance decision-making clarity and confidence.
• Learn from Successful Entrepreneurs: Examples from Sarah Blakely and Jeff Bezos highlight the importance of focusing on key innovations and long-term goals.

Encourage progress over perfection and take the first steps toward conquering decision fatigue by tuning into this episode. "The key is not to prioritize what's on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities."

Additional Links & Resources:

• Stop letting content keep you stuck—jumpstart your website planning with clarity and confidence! Get your content organized in just a few hours: https://malindawatt.com/planner
• Try Siteground, my favorite website hosting company: Siteground.com
• Learn more about me and my work at malindawatt.com

Thank you for tuning in to this episode of Get Over Your Sh!t! If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to follow the podcast and leave a rating or review. Share this with someone who needs a push to start taking action—because we’re all about moving forward together!

Hosted by Malinda Watt
Edited by Chris @ Wider View Studios
Music License purchased from stockmusic.com

Transcript

0:00:01 - (Malinda Watt): Welcome back to get over your shit. The podcast dedicated to helping digital course creators, entrepreneurs, and small business owners stop overthinking and start executing. I'm Malinda Watt, your host and fellow overthinker, here to guide you through the maze of self-doubt and procrastination that keep us stuck.

0:00:18 - (Malinda Watt): In today's episode, we're diving into a topic we all face at some point, decision fatigue. You know that overwhelming feeling of being stuck in indecision? I know I do. Whether it's picking a new marketing strategy, debating on a brand, update colors for a website, or even deciding what tea for dinner, we've all been there. But in business, the ability to make confident and timely decisions is crucial.

0:00:44 - (Malinda Watt): So let's break down exactly what decision fatigue is, why it happens, and most importantly, how we can make decisions more confidently and with less stress. So, what exactly is decision fatigue? Decision fatigue happens when your mental capacity to make decisions wears down over time. As entrepreneurs, we're constantly bombarded with choices, big and small, and each one chips away at our brainpower.

0:01:11 - (Malinda Watt): Eventually, we hit a point where we're mentally exhausted and making clear, confident decisions feels impossible. Procrastination sets in.

0:01:20 - (Malinda Watt): Or worse, you make impulsive decisions that don't serve you or your long term goals. And here's the thing. When you're deep in decision fatigue, and trust me, I have been there, your productivity takes a nosedive. You start second guessing every move, feel completely overwhelmed, and find yourself putting off important decisions. But not to worry. We're not here to dwell on the fatigue. We're here to move past it.

0:01:45 - (Malinda Watt): So how can we simplify the decision making process? One of the best ways to combat decision fatigue is by simplifying your decision making process. Not every choice requires hours of analysis or feedback from a Facebook group. By cutting down on the number of decisions you need to make daily, you save your mental energy for the ones that really matter. So here's what that looks like. First, create routines and habits for your smaller, everyday decisions.

0:02:14 - (Malinda Watt): When choices like what to wear or what to eat are automated, you're freeing up mental space for bigger decisions in your business business. Second, use decision-making frameworks to streamline your process. Frameworks like the Eisenhower Matrix and the Pareto principle help you prioritize and focus on what's important so you're not burning.

0:02:34 - (Malinda Watt): Out on every little choice.

0:02:37 - (Malinda Watt): So let's break these down. Eisenhower matrix (urgent important matrix) named after the 34th U.S. president, Dwight D. Eisenhower; this matrix helps you prioritize tasks based on urgency and importance. It divides tasks into four quadrants urgent and important are tasks to tackle right away. Important but not urgent are tasks to schedule for later. Urgent but not important tasks you should delegate not urgent and not important tasks to eliminate altogether.

0:03:13 - (Malinda Watt): The key focus on quadrant two the important but not urgent tasks like personal growth and strategic planning. As Stephen Covey said in his book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, the key is not to prioritize what's on your schedule but to schedule your priorities. The Pareto principle the 80/20 rule, named after italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, teaches us that 80% of the results come from just 20% of actions.

0:03:47 - (Malinda Watt): This principle helps us focus on the small number of tasks that generate the most significant results, whether in productivity, time management, or business. This rule keeps us from spreading ourselves too thin. And finally, delegate and automate whenever possible. If you're faced with the smaller decisions that still need to be made, pass them off to someone else or automate them with tools and technology.

0:04:15 - (Malinda Watt): Save your mental energy for decisions that truly move the needle in your business. And while I can completely appreciate that delegate and automate, especially as a solopreneur, may not be possible, look for other tools that you could implement. Don't try to redesign the social media posts from scratch. Use a template that already exists. Find it on canva. Use a theme for a website that already exists. By adding your colors, and your brand, and your logo, and your images, you're changing it up.

0:04:45 - (Malinda Watt): Your audience isn't necessarily going to come across something that they've seen a hundred times before simply because you use something that already exists. By applying your brand, your images, it becomes your business. So don't try to start from complete scratch. Use what already exists out there in order to move things forward in your business. 

0:06:52 - (Malinda Watt): Okay, now that we've simplified the decision-making process, let's talk about how to build confidence in your choices. Because making decisions quickly is one thing, but making decisions you feel good about is a whole other game. One technique that works for me, the gut check method. Trust your instincts. Your gut often knows more than your overthinking brain. If a decision feels right, chances are it is another strategy.

0:07:21 - (Malinda Watt): Align your decisions with your core values. When you're clear on what's important to you and your business, the right choice becomes clearer. Ask yourself, does this decision move me closer to my values or further away? That kind of clarity makes confident decision-making so much easier. And finally, don't fear uncertainty. No decision is perfect, and there's no way to predict every outcome. What matters is making the best decision you can with the information you have and trusting that you can handle whatever happens next.

0:07:58 - (Malinda Watt): Let's take a quick look at some entrepreneurs who've mastered this mindset. Take Sarah Blakely, the founder of Spanx. She focused on a few key innovations, like perfecting her product and building relationships with retailers. By zeroing in on what mattered most. She scaled Spanx rapidly, a textbook example of the Pareto principle in action. As she says, don't be intimidated by what you don't know.

0:08:25 - (Malinda Watt): That can be your greatest strength. Then there's Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon. Bezos has always prioritized long-term goals over short-term wins, another hallmark of the Eisenhower matrix. He's famous for focusing on what's important but not urgent, like long-term customer satisfaction, even when it doesn't produce immediate payoffs. His philosophy? If you want to be inventive, you have to be willing to fail.

0:08:54 - (Malinda Watt): Both of these entrepreneurs show us the power of prioritizing key tasks and staying focused on what really matters, so here's the takeaway. Decision fatigue is real, and it can slow down your productivity and progress. But by simplifying your decision making process, aligning your choices with your values, and building confidence in your decisions, you can overcome it. Remember, not every decision needs to be perfect, but every decision needs to be made.

0:09:23 - (Malinda Watt): So next time you feel stuck, take a step back, trust yourself, and keep moving forward.

0:09:29 - (Malinda Watt): Thank you for tuning in to this episode of get over your shit. If you found this helpful, be sure to subscribe. Share this episode with a fellow overthinker and leave a review. Keep pushing forward and don't let perfectionism hold you back.

0:09:42 - (Malinda Watt): And remember, progress over perfection. You've got this.