Decision Fatigue: Definition, signs, and tips to manage it for your KonMari Journey
Have you ever experienced feeling overwhelmed or stuck when decluttering your belongings on your KonMari journey? If so, it may be decision fatigue.
I speak about the signs of decision fatigue and share tips and strategies for managing it. I also talk about the key difference between decision fatigue and indecisiveness.
You can watch the video 🎥, or read the blog post - whichever you prefer.😉
What is decision fatigue? (Definition)
Decision fatigue is a serious topic and can make or break your decluttering journey with the KonMari Method. The more decisions a person makes in a day, the more depleted they will feel emotionally, mentally, and physically.
This means the quality of the decision-making is going down. Decluttering and organizing is a whole marathon of making decisions. And it's not just the decisions you have to make while you're doing the KonMari process; it's also the decisions you must make every day for your everyday life. So, to keep you from insanity, we have to talk about it.
What are signs of decision fatigue?
If you want to declutter and organize your home, or you're in the process of doing it already, you might have stumbled across decision fatigue already.
Let me name 8 signs so you get a better idea:
You're unable to think clearly or to focus.
You're frequently procrastinating.
You're avoiding doing the decision-making tasks.
You're spending a long time on making decisions, because you want to do them perfect.
You're doubting decisions that you've made.
You feel frustrated by yourself or by the process. You might even feel irritable.
You're feeling overwhelmed or stuck.
You are impulsive.
All of these signs point to decision fatigue. However, you could also just have a hard time making decisions because this is part of your personality. It could also be indecisiveness.
What's the difference between decision fatigue and indecisiveness?
As I mentioned earlier, decision fatigue comes when you do too many tasks in a row and then feel depleted.
It's usually during a fixed time frame, for example, in one day. Too many decisions in one day, and then you're done by the end of the day, but the next day, you have more energy and can start from the top.
In contrast, indecisiveness is a character trait or a chronic inability to make decisions. Often, it's rooted in the fear of making the wrong choice.
Underlying reasons can be anxiety, depression, or post-traumatic stress disorder.
How I support my clients with decision fatigue and indecisiveness
As a Professional Organizer and certified KonMari Consultant, I help my clients make informed decisions about what to keep and give away. This way, they can manage their expectations and stress. Having expert support also helps my clients reduce regrets because they make well-informed decisions.
My clients tell me their thoughts and feelings about everything they own. And then, together, we find strategies for how they can decide what to keep and what to discard. I guide them through the process so they feel seen, heard, and safe. Above all, they aren't alone with all the decisions.
The main goal of my clients is to reduce their stress, and usually, they do this by letting go of clutter. Less clutter means fewer decisions every day, and that means less stress. And the result is more space, time, and energy for the things that are important to them.
In a different blog post, I talked about the four types of clutter: Material clutter, digital clutter, mental clutter, and emotional clutter.
Making decisions is even more challenging if you have a lot of mental clutter (mental load). And if you have an indecisive personality even more, but don't fear. There are ways out of that.
How do you manage decision fatigue? (Tips and strategies)
1. Remove choice from some elements in your life
Having fewer choices will be a huge relief in your everyday life. An example is a capsule wardrobe. All your tops will match all your bottom pieces, and you can’t grab a “wrong” outfit.
2. Plan ahead
It creates relief and structure to plan in the evening for the next day. This also gives you the opportunity to say ‘no’ to certain things. Bit by bit you will find out what is the perfect amount of tasks and what was too much.
3. Plan breaks
If you plan breaks in advance you have little islands of calm before the following action step comes. This way you have a breather and can gain new strength.
4. Narrow your choices
This is similiar to number 1. but means that you only give yourself three instead of then choices.
5. Delegate
If you're able to delegate, do it with a trusted the person. Also embrace that perfection might not be the goal, but that done is better than perfect.
6. Make time for self-care
Take care for exercising and sleeping well, and find ways to manage your stress. For example, meditation. All of these things will help you to fill your cup.
Which one makes the most difference in a short time?
All of these things are great, and you can do them. However, I think number one is the most important of them all: Have fewer choices.
Which means putting in the hard work of reducing your clutter.
Start with your material belongings as you will have an immediate before and after, and that will create momentum for the digital, mental, and emotional decluttering processes.
Less clutter means less stress. Fewer decisions and more time to calm down. Of course, I know decluttering and organizing is much more effort than just managing the decision fatigue.
But I know, and I tell you from my own experience, it will change your life. It will improve so many things for your well-being.
Give it a try!
If this blog post was helpful for you, and you learned something new, leave a comment and share it with someone who can benefit from it.
Free Resources for you
And if you want to go deeper into the KonMari Method ®, you can download my free KonMari guide, where I explain every step of the KonMari Method ®.
And if you are ready to rock and roll and declutter everything you own, I made a free digital KonMari declutter checklist.
PS: Sign up for my e-mail update to be informed about new blog post HERE.
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