Decision Fatigue: Why Your Brain Gets Tired of Choosing
We make thousands of decisions every day. Some are small—what to eat for breakfast, which email to answer first, whether to put laundry in now or later. Others are bigger—what treatment to try, whether to take on a new project, or how to respond to a conflict. Each choice takes energy, and by the end of the day many people notice that decisions feel harder.
This is decision fatigue: the mental exhaustion that builds up when too many choices drain our cognitive resources. Decision fatigue is different from being generally tired. You might have energy to cook dinner or fold laundry, but the act of choosing between pasta or rice, or deciding which shirt to wear, feels overwhelming.
When the brain is low on decision-making energy, people are more likely to:
Avoid making a choice at all
Default to the easiest or most familiar option
Rely on urgency, fear, or anxiety to make the choice for them
Feel irritable, anxious, or shut down when faced with even minor decisions
The Brain and Choices
Most decisions rely on the prefrontal cortex—the “CEO” of the brain. This part of the brain handles planning, problem-solving, and weighing options. Every time we make a decision, especially when there are competing factors, the prefrontal cortex has to work harder.
Research shows that as decision-making resources get depleted:
People make quicker, less thoughtful choices
They may rely on habits or defaults instead of evaluating options
Stress, poor sleep, and even low blood sugar make the process harder
How Neurodivergence impacts decision fatigue
Everyone experiences decision fatigue, but it often shows up more intensely for people with OCD, ADHD, or autism.
OCD: Every decision gets second-guessed. Doubt turns small choices into hours of checking or reassurance-seeking. Decisions need to be cross referenced with certainty that nothing will go wrong.
ADHD: Executive function challenges mean that weighing pros and cons or holding multiple options in mind is already more effortful, so the brain gets depleted faster.
Autism: Sensory and social factors add layers of complication to choices. Deciding what to wear may involve thinking through texture, temperature, social expectations, and masking—all at once.
For people who experience more than one of these conditions, the challenge level of choices multiply, leaving very little energy for decisions that matter most.
Practical Ways to Conserve Decision Energy
If you are having trouble making decisions, it is time to get strategic. There’s no way to eliminate decisions all together, but we can reduce the number of them and systematize how we make them in order to conserve mental energy.
Reduce choices through simplicity and support: Meal planning, capsule wardrobes, and recurring grocery lists or delivery subscriptions cut down on daily micro-decisions.
Externalize the steps: Use written routines, visual schedules, or checklists so you don’t have to also remember your multi-step routines in your decision-making frontal lobe. If you have a big chunk of project time coming up, give yourself a list of priorities so that you can focus on actions rather than decisions.
Set defaults: Eat the same breakfast every day, set automatic bill payments, or create “if/then” rules (e.g., “If I can’t decide what to read, I pick up the book on top of the pile and give it a few pages”).
Choose timing wisely: Make important decisions earlier in the day, when your brain is fresher, or after exercise, coffee, or an activity that gives you a boost.
Break big decisions down into parts: decisions like staying together or breaking up, changing jobs, and moving can feel overwhelming because they involve so much data analysis and so many steps. You can use timelines, specific milestones, and values to ground you in the daily portion of a decision that is right in front of you. For example, today I am going to try a new response to my partner and see if it can keep us from getting locked in a struggle. Or, try a specific support at work for a week before deciding if it’s time to have a serious conversation with your supervisor. You can practice approaching your living space with presence and gratitude, or meet your need for beauty by changing a nook so that it feels just right, and see if that value gives you new perspective or information.
Don’t make decisions for others who can make them for themselves: Does your partner want your input on their outfit? Is your child waffling about the lunch options? Is your dad trying to figure out what trainer to use with the dog? It’s an option to say, “I don’t have an opinion,” or “I’m confident you can figure that out.”
Practice deciding and letting it play out: Reframe what you are trying to do. Rather than pick the flawless choice that will protect you from all potential missing out, practice making a decision and following through with it. Let it unfold. Let yourself off the hook for being sure about it. Do the good enough choice as a practice. You win because you practiced, not because you are certain it was the best possible decision.
When to Seek Support
Sometimes decision fatigue can be a contributing factor to tasks piling up, panic attacks, or depression, or could be related to OCD. If you find yourself stuck in indecision that interferes with work, relationships, or your sense of well-being, it may be time to seek support.
Therapeutic approaches can help in a number of ways. Here are just a few:
CBT: creating behavioral experiments, breaking large tasks down into parts, understanding how thoughts, feelings, actions and beliefs are related.
ACT: Learning to use values as a guide, so choices don’t depend on mood or overthinking.
IFS: Working with inner parts that demand “perfect” decisions, and getting parts to work together or update their roles so that decisions carry less ambivalence
ADHD coaching or executive function supports: Building external systems so the brain doesn’t have to work so hard internally.
If you’ve been feeling worn out by the constant weight of decisions, consider where you might reduce, externalize, or automate. Small changes can free up a surprising amount of mental space.
