Feeling overwhelmed by decisions? Try this one thing

When people tell me that work feels overwhelming, what they often realise is that they are making too many decisions because they don’t have enough clarity and they aren’t following a strategy.

If you’re shaking your head because you have a strategy but you still have decision fatigue, then let me ask you this - when did you develop this strategy and have you actually been following it?

Decision fatigue doesn’t come from big strategic choices, it comes from hundreds of small, poorly defined ones and they are often not accounted for in big picture strategy.

Here’s a simple experiment:

Think about one task you regularly put off. Now ask: What decisions are hiding inside this task?

You might notice things like:

• How polished does this need to be?

• Who needs to see this?

• Is this final, or just a draft?

• Am I allowed to decide this, or do I need approval?

• What call-to-action (CTA) should I use?
  

When answers aren’t clear, your brain does the sensible thing - it delays.

Often, the fastest way to make work feel lighter isn’t to optimise the task, but to remove one decision from it:

• Define “good enough”

• Pre-decide the audience

• Clarify ownership once, not every time

• Decide the approvals process and set boundaries

• Create a set of pre-aproved CTA’s
  

This is a small change with an outsized effect.

I’ll be writing more about how decision removal works, over on Substack, where I go deeper into the judgement behind these choices.

Hi, I’m Erika. 

I work with small businesses, organisations and leaders who want clarity around visibility, influence, and public voice without performance, hype, or unnecessary risk.

I’ve spent 30 years in marketing, employer brand, social media training and customer experience, so I spend a lot of time learning and thinking about how people interpret information, make decisions, and respond to uncertainty. That lens shapes everything I do.

If this article resonated and you’d like to discuss it more, I invite you to connect with me on LinkedIn or Substack or send me an email.