Even if the coronavirus hasn't affected your family directly, it is weighing on everyone. And one of the things it's doing is causing decision fatigue.
Things that used to be simple have all of a sudden become major decisions in life. For example, what can you cook for dinner without having to run out to the store for a few ingredients? Is that leaky faucet bad enough that you should let a plumber into your house? Should you use one of your last few disinfecting wipes to clean your counters?
But there are some strategies to help you cope with decision fatigue:
- Set up routines.Wash your mask as soon as you get home. Have a designated food-shopping day, and keep a list on the fridge.
- Make lists. It is a lot easier to manage all the things you have to do when they're written down, rather than just swirling around your brain.
- Build in margins.Take a few minutes every so often just to de-stress. You'll be more effective overall, even if that little bit of time feels like it's wasted.
- Factor in rewards. For example, have a designated night when you get takeout. You get a treat, and you don't have to worry about deciding what to cook.
- Decide not to decide. Some stuff is simply out of your control. If you can't change the outcome, you're not deciding, you're just worrying. Tell yourself it's OK to let that go.
- Don't look back. Once you've made a decision, just stick with it and let it go. There's nothing you can do to change it, anyway.
We can’t just go back to our old ways of doing things. But these steps can help you reduce the number of decisions you have to make -- and the amount of worry that comes with them. (NBC News)