Fundamentals
Blog
/
SendTheLob
Decision Fatigue
Post Date
January 19, 2026
Foundation
Humans make up to 35,000 decisions per day. Most of them are minor, such as deciding what to wear, what to eat or drink. The problem is that by the time you get to the decisions that matter, you have been exhausted by making decisions for 8-12 hours straight.
So what gets picked? The path of least resistance. This is known as “decision fatigue”. It’s killing your ability to do anything meaningful.
Why It Happens
Each decision you have to make on a daily basis is work. Regardless of how important the outcome is, the mental energy used is similarly draining. Choosing what jumper to wear uses the same fuel as choosing whether to quit your job or leave a relationship.
The issue is amplified as we live in a world that provides infinite choices. Every app forces you to make a choice. Every notification prompts an action. Do you engage? Reply? Click? Scroll?
Life before having a phone in your possession at all times was limited. A handful of TV shows meant you watched what you were provided. Limited food choices simplified diets. Energy was able to be preserved for decisions which mattered.
Today, Netflix boasts over 7,000 titles. Spotify has over 100 million songs. The App Store has over 1.5 million options to download. You are forced to make 10x the decisions your grandparents were forced to make. The problem comes where none of them feel that important. They’re just filler.
What Does It Cost You?
Decision fatigue manifests as the following:
- Ordering fast food when you have food at home already
- Scrolling TikTok / Insta / FB / X instead of doing what you need to do
- Staying stuck because change feels too hard
It’s been documented that judges give more lenient verdicts at the beginning of the day and after meal breaks. Two prisoners, the same crime, two different outcomes. Why? As well as hunger, the decision fatigue compounds. By late morning, judges are exhausted, so the easier choice is much more appealing.
You’re no different. All the times you’ve gotten to 8pm and have a difficult choice to make, whether that be making food or exercising, making a difficult decision. What happens? The work doesn’t get done.
The Obvious Solution (Which Doesn’t Work)
It’s easy to say “just decide in advance”. Meal prep, workout clothes the night before. Make it simple. Definitely helps. Not enough though. You can prepare your breakfast but your phone will still serve you up to 200 choices before 12pm. Do you send this post to a friend? Save it to your folders? Respond to a text immediately or wait? Each chips away at your willpower. Until you have nothing left.
What Actually Works
Curate your environment. Cut the decision at the source. Don’t decide if you should check Instagram. Just get rid of it. Don’t debate what to watch. Just get rid of streaming apps. It’s extreme. It cures the problem though. It’s because your environment determines how fatigued you’ll get. More choice = more engagement. Remove the choices = no engagement.
Only Decide Once
Steve Jobs wore the same turtleneck and jeans. Tom Ford wears the same suit everywhere. Making a choice once is powerful. Having the same meal at the same time. Exercising at the same time. Sleeping at the same time. Making the decision once versus daily doesn’t drain your tank nearly as quickly. Trying to make an important decision at 9pm is setting yourself up to fail.
Why Does This Matter For Tech Consciousness?
Tech companies benefit from your decision fatigue. A tired brain picks the easy choice. What’s that easy option? Scrolling. Consuming.
So what’s the end goal? It’s to protect your capacity for the ones that matter. You can’t consider your relationship with technology if you’ve spent all day watching TikTok. You can’t choose intentionally if you’re mentally drained by 3pm.
Pick 3 decisions. Automate them. Examples include when you wake up, when you sleep, when you exercise, what you’ll wear, when you’ll put your phone down, what you’ll eat and drink.
This will help. You’ll stop wasting energy on what doesn’t matter. You aren’t just made up of what you do, you’re also made up of what you don’t do.
Related Blogs
The Autonomy of Choice
Fundamentals Blog / SendTheLob The Autonomy of Choice Post Date February 4, 2026 Between stimulus and action, there's a gap. That gap is your autonomy. Autonomy is defined as "independence or freedom, as of the will or one's actions". Autonomy mostly goes unnoticed. When you get a notification, you have the ability to choose whether to respond to it or ignore it. Programmed behaviour means picking it up but you need to realise you have a choice. You always do. The gap between stimulus and reaction always exists. The Space You Have ForgottenViktor Frankl wrote: "Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response." It highlights the fact that humans possess the agency to choose their reactions rather than merely acting on instinct or conditioning. He wrote this quote about surviving the Holocaust. This applies to your tech usage also. Notification arrives, you pick up your phone. That's what you've been conditioned to do. In that gap between the stimulus and the response, you made the choice. Minuscule but tangible. The choice exists. You can ignore a notification, you can turn off your notifications, you can pick up the phone. Your autonomy depends on what you choose...
The Reward of Responsibility
Fundamentals Blog / SendTheLob Elementor #992 Post Date January 27, 2026 Having a lot of responsibility sounds like a burden, which in some cases is true. Simultaneously, responsibility is also the key to freedom. Why Do We Avoid Responsibility?Responsibility may feel like an obligation instead of a commitment. So it’s avoided. It's avoided through blame of circumstances, people or lack of choice. In doing that, you give away a potent power.Responsibility forces you to acknowledge that you have played a major part in how your life has panned out so far. It also comes with the power of knowing what happens next is up to you. You might feel as if circumstances are always against you. Society might be broken, algorithms are designed to make you addicted, food is hyper palatable. Blaming won't change anything. It just comforts you in staying stuck. You can't let your circumstances determine everything. What's The Cost of Avoiding Responsibility?When you refuse responsibility, you relinquish control to what you blame. You are actively choosing helplessness. What Are You Responsible For?You aren't responsible for how you were raised, the society or time you were born into, the manipulative designs of social media. With that knowledge, you are responsible for how you...