What if choices are actually traps?

We tend to want more choices in our life. The general feeling is that more options are better. However, this may only be true to a certain point. After that point, the exhaustion of too many choices may lead us to stop making any! This is known as decision fatigue. It is defined in Healthline as:

Coined by social psychologist Roy F. Baumeister, decision fatigue is the emotional and mental strain resulting from a burden of choices.

“When humans are overstressed, we become hasty or shut down altogether, and that stress plays a huge role in our behaviors,” says Tonya Hansel, PhD, director of the Doctorate of Social Work at Tulane University.

In other words, when your mental energy begins running low, you’re less able to override basic desires and more likely to go for whatever’s easiest.

According to the article, decision fatigue can lead to these types of outcomes:

*Procrastination. “I’ll tackle this later.”
*Impulsivity. “Eeny, meeny, miny, moe…”
*Avoidance. “I can’t deal with this right now.”
*Indecision. “When in doubt, I just say ‘no.’”

To learn more about decision fatigue and how to avoid it, read the rest of the Healthline article.