You Don’t Have a Choice: How Decisions Affect Your Energy
Capacity, not complexity, is what fatigues us. Different choices can protect us.
Posted May 28, 2026 | Reviewed by Michelle Quirk
As an organizational psychologist, I'm usually helping leaders think about how to solve complex issues, drive large organizations, and lead big teams in a global setting. These are usually highly competent people who can manage difficult, fast-paced situations regularly and effectively. But lately, a lot of them have been wrong about their biggest challenge. They say, in various ways, things are too complex, the decisions are too multi-faceted, they need more tools, they need more people. And often, well, they’re wrong. They need less , not more.
Most people misidentify complexity as draining. But choice is more exhausting.
Decision fatigue is a well-documented concept. One study said the average American adult makes 35,000 decisions in a day . When leaders of companies—who have more decisions on their plate than average—struggle to make decisions, they think there's something complex about the subject matter itself. The instinct is totally rational. But that isn’t how the brain works, and it’s the reason the complexity argument gets shoved in front of the real issue.
Set up your pre-work routine. Goal: Zero decisions.
Stories about President Obama and Mark Zuckerberg (and Bill Gates before them) only wearing two suits are well documented. That sounds silly because what to wear should be literally the easiest decision those men make each day (let’s hope). The insight is not about the complexity of those decisions. It’s that our decision-making capacity is finite, and it’s smaller than you think.
The big disconnect is that the vast majority of decisions happen without emotion , on a subconscious or near-subconscious level. But the brain has to go through a series of data assessment loops any time it has to choose a path. Every choice you make leaves another route on the table. You have to consider the road you’re not taking. That is a risk. The brain takes risk seriously. And there’s a baseline of work it has to do even if the risk is “these socks or those?”
And it triggers new routes of thinking: The sock drawer looks low. Maybe it’s time to do laundry. But is there detergent? Can you stop at the store after work? You might feel like you decided it in an instant. (No. Maybe. Probably.) But you made three decisions.
This is why so many productive people eliminate all routine, early-day prep. For almost all of us, any decision downstream is more important than the number of detergent pods in our hypothetical sock emergency. It doesn't feel like much at the beginning of the day because you're at full capacity.
But by the end of the day, the detergent aisle itself will feel complicated. The upside is that there are simple ways to improve this. First, start to document the smallest, “easiest” decisions. They probably are low stakes or could be removed. Obviously, clothes out the night before is the first example. Food prep, meal planning for breakfasts and weekday lunches (especially if you work from home). Next level: automated delivery of staples like toothpaste and paper towels. You won’t notice it at the beginning of the day. You will notice it at the end of the day. Consider keeping a journal if you really want to test it. My clients sometimes can correlate a particularly tough day that “started poorly,” and sometimes that start was a break in routine.
My guess? That disruption forced a lot more decision-making early in the day, effectively stealing capacity usually available late in the workday. The fatigue probably normally hits after dinner, but today was hitting early evening. Instead of feeling like it was time to wind down for bed (decision-making after dinner is too late, feels right), they felt incompetent. Why can’t I make decisions while I’m at work? was their experience, but the true issue might have been that they hit their normal decision capacity sooner.
Decide if work decisions are depleting your entire capacity.
But think about it the other way, too: What are you doing at work that could be frictionless, so that what you want to do in your evenings has some capacity left? It could mean making your day more organized, reducing the number of meetings, getting things off your plate, and delegating.
One pro tip about delegating to consider: Are you truly delegating decisions ? I see clients delegate work , but the decisions themselves are still living with them. I hate to break your heart, but if you are still driving exactly who does what, you’re secretly micromanaging. Which is just the kind of constant decision-making that burns up energy.
Do you work from home? See where you can make fewer choices at work. Can you have a process you repeat, like backing up your computer or watering the plant? (Yes, seriously.) Do you have a dedicated set of chargers, or do you run to another room? A real work-from-home space, not the 2020 unplanned temporary setup. More than a desk and a chair. Do you have a work-from-home lunch routine and meal prep that doesn't require decisions in the middle of the day? Work is about habits, not just physical infrastructure.
And are you able to avoid making home life decisions during the workday? That’s a big one because working at an office protects us from making other decisions. If you’re constantly running a load of laundry, making personal appointments, and checking private email—multitasking is exhausting. I wrote more about the benefits of a work-remote option that isn’t home here .
Reduce the number of decisions you make. Start small, for bigger effects.
We have a primal instinct to protect our safety. Every time you ask your brain to leave an option on the table, you’ve lit up a risk assessment. It's so deeply embedded you won’t notice when you're at capacity. You only notice when your system begins to fatigue. It's protection, not failure. And luckily, it’s hardwired. One less decision for you.
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Robert Kovach, Ph.D., has spent his entire career working as a trusted advisor to senior leaders wanting to improve the effectiveness of themselves, their teams, and their companies.
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This article is part of the Bringwise Psychology Journal — daily insights on human behavior, mental health, and personal growth.