According to an ad I heard on the radio today, we make an average of 35,000 decisions every day. No wonder I’m so tired.
That’s a lot—if it’s true. Ever the cynic, I wanted to know who did the counting and how they did it. Did test subjects walk around all day with clickers? I’ll paint my house yellow. Click. I’ll vote for so-and-so. Click. I’ll have cake instead of pie. Click. Wait. I’ll have both. Click.
To learn more I went to the internet, that source of all knowledge and a great deal of misinformation. I found numerous articles stating the statistic, many of them even claiming that researchers had come up with it. What I didn’t find were the names of those researchers. Until I do, I’m going to assume that someone just threw the number out there and it spread like everything else does on the internet—like dandelion seeds on the wind only farther. I’m sure the first person to say we make an average of 35,000 decisions a day was confident no one would check. They don’t know me.
I started counting with my first important decision of the day: Should I get up or should I turn over and go back to sleep. Unfortunately by the time I woke up the second time, I’d forgotten all about counting decisions and I didn’t think about it again until I was deciding what to wear for the day. Unfortunately that meant I hadn’t counted any of the decisions I’d made regarding breakfast.
I might try it again another day. But probably not. For now I’ll just say this: It appears no one, including me, really knows how many decisions we average each day. But based on personal experience, I can tell you this: It’s way too many.
Actual researchers with actual names have researched something called “decision fatigue,” a condition that develops over the course of a day in which we make many decisions. Decision fatigue results in deteriorating decision making as the day goes on. Unfortunately those same researchers can’t agree on whether it’s real or not. I happen to know it is.
Why else would grocery stores put the candy and the National Enquirers at checkout? After choosing from the hundreds of varieties of toothpaste, jam, yogurt and so on our defenses are lowered and we can’t stop ourselves from tossing a dozen candy bars onto the conveyor belt at checkout. At least some of us can’t.
If decision fatigue isn’t real, why would I make a quick decision just to get it over with, then question my judgment for the next month and half?
If I’m not suffering from decision fatigue, why would I ask my husband what he thinks I should do then question his judgment for the next month and a half?
Why would I have two pairs of hiking pants that are exactly the same except for the color? I was so tired of making decisions that I couldn’t decide which one I wanted so I got them both. That’s why. Now I’m too tired to decide which one to wear.
And if decision fatigue isn’t real, why would some of us put off certain decisions until it’s no longer necessary to make them. For example, should I or should I not go to a Halloween party with friends? I like my friends but I don’t like Halloween. I already know that November will roll around without me committing either way. Decision made.
Dorothy Rosby is the author of I Didn’t Know You Could Make Birthday Cake from Scratch: Parenting Blunders from Cradle to Empty Nest and other books. Contact her at www.dorothyrosby.com/contact.