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Automate Minor Tasks to Fight Decision Fatigue


If you read Lifehacker, you probably enjoy automating tasks to save both time and money. There's one more reason to add to that list of benefits: avoiding too many decisions.

Decision fatigue occurs when we become so overwhelmed by making too many decisions that our ability to make any decision well diminishes. Finance blog The Simple Dollar suggests one way to avoid this type of mental exhaustion. Make fewer decisions by automating the little ones:

We have most of our bills set to be automatically paid within a few days of their due date. We don't have to think about these bills at all. We don't have to consider when to pay them, ask ourselves where the stamps are, or remember a system for paying them. Paying most of our bills is never a decision we have to make.

Sarah and I both value systems that automate small decisions in our life. In fact, we often look for these types of systems, particularly when they don't cost us anything.

Most of us will give up on the idea of automating a task if it doesn't save us a noticeable amount of time or money (and for good reason sometimes). However, setting up routines for things that don't necessarily need it might still be beneficial if it lightens your mental load.

Automating Small Decisions | The Simple Dollar

Photo by Lee Haywood.