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We face dozens if not hundreds of decisions every single day–from big decisions to tiny ones, and they all take energy.
As HSPs, we put so much care and energy into everything we do, that making all these decisions can wear us out, leaving us with insufficient energy for the important things in our life!
In this episode, I give some examples of ways to reduce the number of choices you have to make in your daily life. While there is no way to have a truly decision free life, by preparing and planning ahead, we can eliminate some of them!
Resources mentioned in Episode 3:
I first heard about (and was inspired by) the phrase “decision-free living” in this Marie Forleo interview with Susan Cain. (it’s at 11:40).
Have a hard time getting through your To-Do list because you don’t know where to start? Try the Random.org List Randomizer.
Further Reading: Tim Ferriss on The Choice-Minimal Lifestyle: 6 Formulas for More Output and Less Overwhelm
Related Posts on This Blog:
- Decision-Free Living
- Deadlines, Schedules, and Commitment Stress Me Out
- Second Guessing Decisions
- Finding the “Stasis of Peace”
- Feeling Overwhelmed When Nothing is Wrong
Podcast music attribution: Bust This Bust That (Professor Kliq) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0
Love that you”re doing a podcast! Your audio sounds awesome. Looking forward to more. Longer next time please! more you is a good thing. 🙂
I do exactly the same thing when I have a lot of things to do – I don’t know where to start and think things like “How long it will take?”, “What else *could* I be doing during this time?”, “What would I *prefer* to be doing in this time?”, “How do I start this?”, “Do I want this?” and then usually end up doing nothing. I find it can be with things I enjoy too, not just things like, say, study. Sometimes I have gone years without completing something or getting around to it!
I also find it’s easier to let someone else make the decision in a situation… I find that can make my decision-making harder if a decision is sprung upon me while I am used to letting someone else choose. So, I try to think of hypothetical ways I could make a decision easier, so it’s easy in any situation. The soloutions of ways of thinking has helped, like “How bad/how much will I regret the outcome? Does it really matter?”
Hi Kelly
Just wanted to say you are accomplishing amazing things on your podcast and one of them is the way you introduce links to useful tools. One of them is the Random.org List Randomizer and I need more simple and accessible tools like this one.
Thanks for being a HSP, for me it’s like when “Stella got her groove back”!
Hi! Something I find useful is the “eat the frog first,” theory. It’s based on a Mark Twain quote (“eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day”) and really helps with my procrastination anxiety. If I just force myself to get over the hump of starting the thing I want to do least and get it over with, I don’t have it hanging over my head all day and the other tasks fly by much more easily. 🙂
I LOVE THIS!!
Hi Kelly,
I find that procrastination goes hand in hand with perfectionism. Why spend hours doing something leading up to a deadline if I know I’m going to do it right the first time? This gets me into trouble, but I can’t shake it!
I totally agree!!! I tend to be less confident, though–I put things off until I feel it’s the ideal time to do them, for example–I have a completely uninterrupted day. So I keep procrastinating and waiting for the perfect time, because if I don’t, then my output won’t be good enough.
An uninterrupted day is such a good way to go! I rarely carve out time like that just to do my to-do list, and then I put it off and put it off until the very last minute, and then I stress that it’s not good enough. I’ll have to start scheduling uninterrupted days every now and then!
I don’t see it so much as ‘Decision-Free’, but more as ‘Pre-Decision Making’ and I’ve found it a good policy to have many everyday decisions made ahead of time. Not to become rigid, but to relieve myself of constantly having to make a decision. This leaves more time and mental clarity for decisions of importance. Eating is ideal for pre-deciding.
Throughout my life I’ve struggled with jonesing for sugar and caffeinated coffee (among other things). I’ve researched how the brain reacts to what we eat, and I found the best thing for me is to delete sugar and caffeine from my life. A guiding star on this subject is Susan Peirce Thompson, Ph.D. and her Bright Line Eating Program. There’s a link on her webpage for a free report on the 3 Huge Mistakes That Almost Everyone Makes When They Try to Lose Weight. Even if you’re not wanting to lose weight it helps you get your life in order. You can find her at: http://susanpeircethompson.com
Hi, I recognize these daily struggles. Especially the restaurant-thing where I can’t pick a restaurant haha. My boyfriend solved this for me by making a list of all restaurants that we talked about in the past and asks me to pick one of the list (to reduce choice overload). Furthermore, my boss recommended the book: Getting things done, and even arranged an individual coaching day from this same theory for me. This management technique works great for me and I think it’s great for hsp’s because it recognizes the choice overload and the difficulty of making choices.
Moreover, I agree with planning ahead. I especially like it when going on holidays because that’s really overwhelming for me (although it’s great to relax!).
Thanks Ruby! What a great idea from your boyfriend to make it easier to choose! 🙂
Omg… never thought Id hear someone else say they also use random.org for to do list decision making. I started using it for other things as well. I also found another one that is highly detailed: http://www.idea-sandbox.com/resources/Decision_Making_Tool
Hi I just found this podcast today and I really like it. I came to this website to write a tip on meal planning. A few years ago I found this awesome meal planning app because I too had the problem about what to eat today. In this app you can add all the meals and recipes you like and than you just have to pick one and place it in the day you want to eat it + you can add all the ingredients to your shopping list all at once so it’s so super handy it really helps.
The app is stashcook and can be found in the play store .