My Morning Routine to Avoid Decision Fatigue
The Problem
Our world is constantly changing. In the past handful of years, we’ve faced a global pandemic, political turmoil at home and abroad, and the increasing threat of environmental consequences decades in the making. I think it’s fair to make the argument that our life isn’t getting any simpler. With the increased number of challenges comes an increase in the complexity of our everyday decision-making. The decisions we make today carry a greater cognitive strain and more profound consequences. Every day, these challenging decisions compound, and by the time we reach the afternoon, we are unable to properly process and solve problems. I know that I have often felt that afternoon slump where I lack the energy to tackle new challenges. This uphill slog against making decisions is known as decision fatigue.
What is Decision Fatigue?
Imagine somewhere in our brain exists a storage unit. In that storage unit is our decision-making energy for the day. Like any real storage unit in the world, the contents within the unit are finite. We have a finite amount of decision-making energy, and at some point, that energy will begin to run low. At this point, our brain doesn’t have enough energy to make a complex decision, but it might just have enough to muster some sort of shortcut. This shortcut will allow our brain to make the decision that requires the least cognitive effort, but often this isn’t the optimal decision. In short, we get tired of making so many decisions and we mess up. It’s the reason elite athletes make inexplicable decisions at the end of a game and the reason a doctor is more likely to write a wrong prescription at the end of a shift.
This idea of decision-making energy is slightly abstract so I thought it might be helpful to quantify this concept of decision fatigue. In 2021, Tobias Baer and Simone Schnall published some interesting research in The Royal Society attempting to quantify the cost of decision fatigue in the finance sector. In their research, they studied a bank and its employees’ decision-making as it related to the loan approval process. They identified that the rejection of a loan required minimal cognitive effort and was the decision made by bankers experiencing decision fatigue. They noticed that more loans were approved in the mornings and that there was an increase in loan rejections in the middle of the workday. Bankers likely made a series of complex decisions in the morning in regards to loan approvals, thus draining their decision-making energy; by the middle of the day, the bankers began to shortcut their decisions and reject more loans due to a lack of decision-making energy. Some of these loans rejected in the middle of the day should have been approved. Baer and Schnall concluded that in a one-month time frame, the apparent decision fatigue by the bankers had cost the bank over $500,000 in revenue. The concept of decision fatigue might seem abstract at first, but now we can see that it has real quantifiable consequences.
What To Do About It?
In order to avoid the consequences of decision fatigue, we must find a way to conserve our decision-making energy. If we are able to reduce the number of complex decisions we have to make in the morning, then we will have more energy to make decisions later in the day. The solution here is not to suggest that we should shy away from challenging problems, but rather turn trivial decisions into routines or habits.
In Charles Duhigg’s book, The Power of Habit, he talks about a concept known as the Habit Loop. This concept suggests that our brain is able to form a loop consisting of a cue, a reaction to that cue known as a routine, and a reward for performing the routine. Over time this process becomes more automatic until it requires little decision-making energy to perform the routine. By creating a consistent routine, or Habit Loop, centered around the more trivial decisions, we should be able to conserve more of our decision-making energy and in turn avoid decision fatigue.
Now the question becomes: where is it best to implement this consistent routine in our daily lives? I believe the answer is in the morning routine. The morning period before we begin the main portion of our day is full of small decisions. What time should I wake up? What should I wear? What should I have for breakfast? The list could continue with any number of trivial decisions to be made. Every time we make a decision in the morning we are taking away from our ability to be productive later in the day. It’s not easy to build a consistent morning routine, but I believe it’s worth it. I’ve been consciously working on creating a simpler morning routine, and I can definitely say that I am able to begin my day with more energy and extend my productivity further into the afternoon.
Decisions I Have Removed From My Morning
Morning alarm. For me, my morning routine starts the night before when I set my alarm. This used to be a decision I would make every night. I’ve removed this decision by building a consistent bedtime and wake-up time into my morning routine. I now wake up at 7:00 AM every day, and no longer need to make a decision about my morning alarm before I go to sleep. These decisions may seem minor individually, but they will add up.
Exercise. For the past few months, I’ve made an effort to incorporate exercise into my morning routine in an attempt to be healthier and jumpstart a more productive day. After waking up I would decide what clothes I was going to wear to exercise, and I would select the workout I was going to do. I made two decisions every morning: clothes and workout type. Like the morning alarm, I’ve removed these decisions from my morning routine. I now have one type of workout shorts and one type of workout shirt. There is no clothing decision to be made. I also have a daily 30-minute workout rotation that goes like this: core and legs, core and arms/shoulders, core and chest/back, rest. I cycle through this four-day rotation. Now, I’m not an exercise professional, but this plan works for me. It enables me to feel healthier, stronger, and more ready for the day. I’ve been able to incorporate exercise into my morning routine while removing any decisions relating to it.
Breakfast. I’ll admit this is the part I am struggling with the most. This part of the routine can be a major energy-sucking decision. The breakfast decision can so often hinge on what is available in the cupboard and what you are feeling like on the day. I’ve found I have the most luck with a breakfast consisting of a breakfast bar before my workout and 3 scrambled eggs, 2 toasted English muffins, a banana, and a protein shake (assuming it isn’t my rest day) after my workout. This breakfast provides me with great fuel for the day and isn’t too high on sugar, which helps to avoid an afternoon crash. This step of the morning routine for me is still a work in process, but when I’m able to stick to this consistent breakfast and eliminate the decision from my morning I feel much better later in the day.
Clothing choice. This is another part that is still a work in progress for me, but one that I feel good about. I’ll admit, the morning clothing choice has never been very time-consuming or mentally taxing for me. I’m the type of person that will throw on a comfortable outfit and not think twice about it. I’ve recently started to go through my clothes in an attempt to create a type of capsule wardrobe. This is a minimalist concept that suggests structuring your wardrobe in a way that you have fewer clothing items and the items you do have are more interchangeable with each other. Taking this step toward a capsule wardrobe means fewer decisions to be made when it comes to getting dressed. Just another decision removed from my day to help conserve my decision-making energy.
Removing these four decisions from my day has provided me with greater sustained energy later into the afternoon. I think it’s fair to argue that some of the sustained energy is due to a healthy routine that physically energizes my body, but I absolutely attribute some of that sustained energy to a reduced cognitive effort in the morning. Whatever your morning routine is, I believe making it more consistent will greatly reduce your afternoon decision fatigue. Below is a timeline of my morning.
| Time | Activity |
|---|---|
| 7:00 am | Wake-up (consistent alarm every day) |
| 7:15 am | Take dog out and eat a breakfast bar (the length of time here slightly depends how long Denali wants to run around outside) |
| 7:30 am | Workout (4-day rotation) |
| 8:00 am | Breakfast (3 eggs, 2 muffins, banana, and protein shake) |
| 8:15 am | Shower and get dressed (capsule wardrobe) |
My Reactions So Far
For a long time, I’ve found myself tired and less productive in the afternoons. I attribute this feeling to two things: a lack of physical energy and decision fatigue. As I’ve started this journey striving towards a better understanding of productivity and habits, I found myself more interested in ways to reduce my decision fatigue. This more consistent and simple morning routine is really a combination of productive and minimalist ideas from Ali Abdaal and Matt D’Avella on YouTube and concepts from Charles Duhigg in his book The Power of Habit. Developing this improved morning routine has done a lot for me.
I’m proud of myself. I’ve gone from not having a morning routine, not exercising, and oftentimes not eating breakfast; to maintaining a consistent and disciplined morning routine with a workout rotation and a breakfast packed with sustainable energy.
I have more energy in the afternoon. Before this morning routine, my productive day would realistically end around 2 pm. I didn’t have the decision-making energy to push any further. This morning routine has allowed me to conserve my decision-making energy and extend my productive day by several hours.
I’m inspired to make my life even more productive. Introducing a simple morning routine has made a dramatic difference in my physical and mental health, and in my outlook on what I can accomplish in a day. I now have a greater drive to push myself further and see what else I can achieve by improving my habits and routines.
Closing Thoughts
Every day, we are required to make complex decisions. Our ability to live a productive life comes down to our ability to maintain enough energy to tackle these decisions. When we run out of energy and the cognitive effort required to make decisions becomes too great, we start to experience decision fatigue. We can avoid decision fatigue by conserving our mental energy and removing trivial decision-making from our day. The best way I have been able to do this in my life is with a consistent morning routine. Removing a number of simple decisions every morning has provided me with more energy and the ability to tackle challenges well into the afternoon. It has allowed me to extend the window of time in which I am productive and accomplish more later in the day. I absolutely recommend this morning routine for anyone that struggles with afternoon decision fatigue or lethargy. Be sure to reach out if you have any comments or questions, or if you have any thoughts on different ways to reduce decision fatigue.