Word For Word
Ashley Brown 00:00
[Intro] Routines, my absolute favorite word, but you either love them or you hate them. And either way, I strongly believe that routines can be a springboard for improving your home, yourself and your life. I'm Ashley Brown, and this is a routine and things podcast. In each episode will dive into a specific routine or point of view that will move you closer to enjoying life more and more each day. Trust me, you're going to want to keep listening, because you're well on your way to getting and staying happy.
Ashley Brown 00:46
Hey, welcome back to the routine and things podcast. So happy you're joining me today. So before we get into things and really what this episode is about, and do want to show a listener some love today, and shout a listener out because you are what made this podcast what it is, and you just being a part of this community warms my heart each and every time I get a review or someone says that they have enjoyed a podcast episode. So I really want to give a listener some love today and that listener is TWilson2014. She says this channel has been so helpful for me, Ashley gives me practical tips on how to create peace in my home. And I'm telling you it's made a difference. It feels so good to move in my house with power and clarity versus feeling overwhelmed and frustrated day in and day out. A great podcast. And so thank you so much TWilson2014. I am so thankful for you. Thank you for leaving this review and thank you for listening, I so so appreciate it. So I will start to do these listener love shout outs every so often and you might just be a person that I shoutout. So make sure you leave a review for the podcast and make sure you listen every week, just in case, I mentioned you.
Ashley Brown 02:09
Alrighty, so let's get into this episode today, which is all about how to combat decision fatigue. And so if you're unsure about what this actually means, basically having decision fatigue is where you get into having analysis paralysis, because you are making so many decisions in a day. Or when you just feel so overwhelmed from the amount of decisions that you have to make that you are feeling bogged down, way down. And you're like, I don't want to make any other decisions today. And so I want to share with you a Facebook Live that I did on the routineandthings page ,facebook page, and this live talks about some really practical things that you can do in order to combat decision fatigue. So I want to share that with you today. So I hope that you enjoyed this episode, I hope that you enjoy the things I talked about. And yeah, let's get into it.
Ashley Brown 03:06
So what we're talking about tonight is decision fatigue, decision fatigue, and how to lessen the amount of decisions you make on a daily basis how to actually less than decision making your life. So I wanted to come on and give you some advice and tips and encouragement about how you can actually lessen the amount of decisions you make each day. Because I think that's important in terms of just my mission for routine and things. So what causes decision fatigue? Well, first of all, what is decision fatigue? Basically, my definition of it is one, It is fatigue that comes from either making too many decisions, or overthinking and not making decisions at all. Either you're making decisions on a constant basis that gets too overwhelming or you're overthinking thinking too hard about the decision that you want to make. And then you're not making any decisions at all, which will make you tired too. Alright, so what causes decision fatigue? Like I said, making too many decisions, or overthinking and not making a decision and at all, like getting stuck and being like, okay, I don't know what to do next. Like I have all of these options. I don't know which way to turn on which way to go. Which comes up sometimes where, you know, you can make a whole bunch of decisions, or you can be thinking so much about a decision and have so many options that you're stuck. You don't know which way to go, and or which to go with, which will make you feel tired, too. And so tonight, we're going to be talking about how to lessen decision making. Let's go ahead and get into that.
Ashley Brown 04:50
So I was online earlier, and I was like, I wonder how many decisions we make in a day. I wonder? Because I feel like I'm making a lot but I don't know. So I looked it up and get this. I went to Google. You know, Google is my friend, I went to Google and it said, studies have shown that we make around 35,000 decisions each day, girl. I was like, huh, that's crazy. That's a bit. That's that's a bit too much. But I understand that some of those decisions, like they were saying are really small decisions and don't take much thought, where other decisions more so take more thought. So, I understand. I was like, I can get it though. I can understand how we make 35,000 decisions each day because the small decisions add up. But in my mind, I feel like even like the decisions that take more thought is what really makes us tired. So small decisions like okay, how am I fixing my hair today? Even though I'm gonna be honest that like for me that that's that decision takes a little bit though, especially on certain days where I know I don't just want the puff up top like I want to do something else it do take a little bit of thought so it might be a more of a hard decision. But things like okay, what time am I going to wake up? What am I going to put the children on? That might be an easy decision for you to make? But then like the hard decisions, like I was saying, like fixing your hair, what are you gonna wear today? What are you gonna make for dinner, who's gonna come fix something that you have a problem with in your house? Those are like some of the harder decisions to make that take more thought from us. So we want to try to lessen the amount of decisions that we make.
Ashley Brown 06:49
So four decisions that I know we make, I'm going to go through this four decisions I know we make and you probably make on a day to day basis is one, what am I going to cook today? Like, what am I going to make for dinner? If you don't get this question every day, then you need to like, please let me know how you don't think about this every day because every day I'm like, What? Well, I'm not because I meal plan. But every day you may be asking yourself that question like, what am I going to make? Like what are you going to cook for dinner is one thing that you think about every single day. Another thing that you think about every single day is what are you going to wear? That's probably something you think about every single day. I know some days where I am where I'm not trying to think too much. I'm like, well Ashleys' wearing this robe today. I'm wearing my robe today. That's what I'm wearing, because I'm a purely stay at home mom for now. So it's like, I wear my robe today. I'm not I'm not even choosing anything to wear. Because that's just what it is. I don't I don't even want to think about it. So that's why I'm gonna that's what I'm going to have one. So we do think about what we're gonna wear day today, as well.
Ashley Brown 07:59
Another thing that comes up throughout the day is, what am I doing today? That is like a question we asked ourselves that you asked yourself on a day by day basis I bet is, what am I actually doing today? Especially if you haven't planned, you're asking yourself that. But then another question that goes along with that as you ask yourself, What am I doing tomorrow? Which usually comes later on at night in the evening at nighttime, you're like, what am I doing tomorrow? Let me see. What am I doing? Okay. I'm gonna do this way. I don't want to do that. Let me wait. I'm gonna do this. No, no, it said that this way I'm going to do. Like we're thinking about those things. So the four things what what am i cooking for dinner? What am I wearing today? Am I doing today? And what am I doing tomorrow? So those are some things that you ask yourself. Those are things that we ask ourselves on a daily basis. What am I doing today? What am I doing tomorrow? What am I cooking? What am I wearing? I'm gonna get into like practical things, but it's only bulls down, I think to two ways that you can actually lessen the amount of decisions you make each day.
Ashley Brown 09:14
One of those ways is to create routines and to do your routines like that is one of the ways. There are five routines I believe every home should have. That's children cooking, cleaning, self care and planning. So those are the five routines I believe you should have. But creating routines will help you in not making as many decisions Why? Because when you do your routines on a consistent basis, they become habits. They become habitual for you. Basically, you start to like automate parts of your life. You start to be on autopilot when it comes to parts of your life and some of the things that you do throughout the day. So definitely creating routines can help because once you get to a point where your routine becomes habitual becomes a habit, you're not thinking so much, you're just doing. And so because you're not using as much brainpower that is helping you, right, to make less decisions, you are not deciding, oh, but when am I actually going to do the dish. You already know at night I'm doing the dishes, you don't have to ask yourself that. You don't have to ask, when am I putting the kids to sleep? You already know. And nine o'clock I'm putting the kids asleep, right? Like you already know, these things that are a part of your routine and you don't have to think about them, you can just do them. So routines are so so so helpful. So helpful, and you'll hear me preach about that all the time. Because they can really benefit you as a mom and in life. So routines are one.
Ashley Brown 10:56
Also the second way is to plan. Planning is one of the five routines I believe you should have in your home. Planning is huge. Because planning honestly, you remember the four things I talked about the four questions that you probably ask yourself on a daily basis, planning can help you not ask yourself those questions, or at least ask yourself those questions once. That's what I want to say. It helps you to only ask yourself those questions once instead of five times a week or seven times a week. So when you sit down to plan to sit down to plan once, and ask yourself those questions, or what am I going to cook this week? What am I wearing this week? What am I going to do throughout my week, and you can plan on all of that in one moment. Instead of you taking out time throughout the week, every day, to ask yourself those questions. You can ask yourself that question once throughout your week. And then do you know how many decisions, how many less decisions you're going to be making throughout the week. It's a good amount of decisions, decisions that you're not going to be making throughout the week. So, planning is so, so huge. I plan every week. I don't care if it's in the middle of my week. I don't care if it's a Tuesday. I'm like, oh, shoot, things got so crazy that I forgot to plan on Sunday, because usually Saturday or Sunday is when I plan. But sometimes I'm like, it might get to Tuesday. I'm like, let me sit down and plan. Like, I don't care what part of the week isn't, it doesn't have to be perfect. I just need to sit down and plan because that's going to help me lessen the overwhelm, lessen the chaos, lessen the stress and my life if I sit down and plan, it's gonna bring me peace and joy and just help ease me. So planning is huge and can be huge when it comes to making less decisions and not as many decisions and that's going to lessen your decision fatigue.
Ashley Brown 12:50
So, those are the two things and the two ways that you can actually lessen your decision fatigue, but I want to give you three practical ways that starting today, you can start to lessen the amount of decisions you make daily. So every day, if you do, if you go ahead and start doing one of these three things, every day, you're going to be having one less decision to make, or at least a couple less decisions to make each day. So the first thing that you can do is meal plan. meal planning is such a simple thing that you can do. If you sit down and do it and think about it, especially when you're planning. If you sit down to think about meal planning, what are you eating throughout the week? So let's say you usually eat, you usually cook at home four times throughout the week, because on Friday, you eat out. Well y'all go to a restaurant or you order in. Then you have four meals that you can think about for dinner. Just sit down and think about those meals, say what do I want to cook? What do I want to cook? And so that can be a really simple way thing that you can start today to do is meal planning. Right now just think about for the rest of the week, what are you actually going to cook so that tomorrow, you're not thinking about that and the next day you're not thinking about. So sitting down every week to really decide what you're making for dinner can be really helpful. So that's the one practical thing that you can do and start today.
Ashley Brown 14:21
The second thing is to take out your clothes for the week. And even if you don't want to iron them, you don't have to iron them. Just kind of decide what pants am I wearing? What shorts do I want to wear? Like, what am I actually wearing throughout the week, this can be something that you do as well to lessen the amount of decisions. And even if you don't want to take out your clothes. Another thing you can do is take out your children's clothes for the week, or at least decide what am I putting them on? Because that can take work as well. Especially if you have multiple kids. Even if you have one like I have two girls I'm always like, What are y'all wearing? Unless I thought about the day before, but a lot of times I'm like, what are they wearing today? It doesn't make me overwhelmed right now. But I know that if it got to that point, this is something that I would start doing. And it's actually a tip my mom gave me before as well, is to start you know, think about what your kids are wearing, or think about what you're wearing throughout the week, and sit down and think about that, and take some time. That's another thing you can do.
Ashley Brown 15:25
Another thing that you can do in order to lessen the amount of decisions you make each day is to write out a new and improved routine. Basically, you want to write out your routine, okay?You want to go ahead and start. If your routine doesn't feel good to you, I have a whole podcast episode on this. If your routine doesn't feel good to you, you can actually improve your routine, revamp your routine, make it something that works for you and your family, but also feels so that you will continue to do it. So that's another thing that you can do starting today is if your routines are out of balance, if you feel like they're not working anymore, something is off, they don't feel good. Sit down at some point for the rest of the week at some point in this week and actually decide, not decide to actually come up with a new routine. And write out a new routine. And I have a workbook for you that you can pick up that will help you walk through how to actually create a new routine that works for you. But then also feels good for you and I give you tips about things to add into your routine that can make it feel good and give you tips about how to actually build an effective routine, which is super duper important for sustainability. And so I walk you through that in the workbook. So if you want to pick that up, you can go to routineandthings.com/routine. Yes, you can get that it will help walk you through your routine, it will help you to create an effective and feel good routine, which is so, so vital. Like I tell you, once you get your routines, habitual, girl, you just be flowing, you just be vibing out, you be in your rhythm, and you feel good in your home and you feel better in your home and at peace. And so it's really a great idea for you to work on your routines as well.
Ashley Brown 17:24
So I would say choose one of those three things to start this week. We going to start small because it's important to start small and not to overwhelm yourself with so many like starting so many new things. So either start with planning out your meals for the week, or taking out your clothes for the week or deciding what you or your kids are going to wear for the week or actually create a new routine that you are going to feel better about. All of these three things are going to help you lessen decision making on a day to day basis. So choose one of those three and get to it. The fewer decisions that you make, the more headspace you have. The more headspace you have to be present with your family, to be present for yourself, to just be present in life in general. Making less decisions can really help you feel more peaceful in your home can lessen the overwhelm for you can really help you to enjoy life more. So, decision fatigue we know is real but it's ways that we can help lessen this.
Ashley Brown 18:33
Alright girl so that was how to combat decision fatigue and really share with you some tips and ways that you can really do this starting tomorrow, starting actually today. And those things that I mentioned were of course having routines You know, that's what this podcast is all about. This is how I hope to serve you is routine. So definitely routines can help planning Of course, you know, planning is my jam. And I always will advocate for you to plan each and every week, because it's super beneficial for your life. In the three practical tips that I share where to meal plan, take out your clothes for the week, and revamp your routine if it's not working for you. So those are some things that you can get started today. And if you want to grab the revamp your routine work book that workbook will be available for you to grab if you go to routineandthings.com/routine and it will be there for you, so or you can just pick it up by clicking the link in the show notes. That resource is free and so go grab it, especially if you need to work on your routines. Alright girl well that's it for this episode. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast if you haven't already. Rate and review. Also please share this podcast, you can share it on social with a friend, with a neighbor, someone in passing and let them know this podcast is here for them. But I hope that you come back next week because we're going to be diving into three tips for improving your cleaning routine. And it's going to be a good one. So I hope that you join me next week. But until next time, I hope you're enjoying wherever you are and whatever you're doing, talk to you soon.
Ashley Brown 20:15
[Outro] Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed today's episode, could you do me a huge favor and take a screenshot and share it on social. And for more routine goodness, be sure to visit routineandthings.com. Here's to staying happy!