Living Lucky® Podcast with Jason and Jana Banana

Decision Fatigue, Simplified Choices

• Jana and Jason Shelfer • Season 10 • Episode 10

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Stop the Brain Drain: Mastering Decision Fatigue for Peak Focus 🧠⚡

Stop the Brain Drain: Mastering Decision Fatigue 🧠⚡

Overwhelm isn’t a crisis; it’s a tax paid through a thousand tiny choices. In this episode of Living Lucky®, Jason and Jana Banana tackle decision fatigue—the invisible drain on your focus. If you hit a 6 p.m. "mental fog," this is your roadmap to reclaiming your mindset and energy.

Learn to eliminate fragmented awareness and use personal development systems to automate the mundane. From wardrobe uniforms to solving the "dinner dilemma," we show you how to declutter your mind and ignite momentum.

In this episode, you will learn to:

  • Identify Friction: Neutralize micro-decisions (like password loops) that hijack your morning.
  • Automate Energy: Use "commitment devices" like meal kits to preserve positive thinking.
  • Build Offline Backups: Protect critical habits from tech glitches and digital noise.

Mindset Nuggets for Clarity:

  • Wardrobe Wisdom: Shrink your choice space. A personal uniform protects brain power for high-stakes goals. (Believe in yourself).
  • The Dinner Dilemma: Pre-committing beats "hangry" willpower. Stop the 6 p.m. energy leak. (Believe in your circumstances).
  • Rituals Over Drift: Routines are anchors that prevent mental scattering. (Believe in a higher power).
  • System Stewardship: Automate bills, but audit monthly. Don't let "simple" become "wasteful." (Believe in the people around you).

Stop leaking energy. Hit play to simplify your life and start Living Lucky® today!

Self-help, personal development, mindset, decision fatigue, productivity.
How to overcome overwhelm, simplifying daily choices, mental clarity tips, breaking the doom loop, morning routine systems for success.

  • "What is decision fatigue and how does it affect productivity?" Decision fatigue is the mental exhaustion resulting from the cumulative burden of making choices. It depletes willpower, leads to poor impulse control, and causes "fragmented awareness," making it difficult to focus on high-priority goals.
  • "How can I reduce daily overwhelm?" Reduce overwhelm by "decluttering decisions." Automate recurring tasks like bill pay, use a capsule wardrobe, and plan meals in advance. C

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The 4 pillars of Living Lucky
Believe in yourself
Believe in the people around you
Believe in your circumstances and
Believe that God is working through you, for you, and always conspiring in your favor.

*Previously Recorded

Jana Shelfer:

Are you ready to create a life you crave? Let's spin that doom loop of negativity into an upward success cycle and start Living Lucky®.

Jason Shelfer:

Good morning.

Jana Shelfer:

I'm Jana. I'm Jason. And we are Living Lucky®.

Jason Shelfer:

You are too.

Jana Shelfer:

Decision fatigue.

Jason Shelfer:

Oh, sounds like a comfy blanket.

Jana Shelfer:

Bum bum bum. I struggle with decision fatigue. And to be honest with you, I kept using the words, I just feel overwhelmed. I just feel overwhelmed. And then I caught myself saying, why? Why am I feeling because overwhelmed is just a word. And it's because a lot of times I have all these little tiny decisions to make. And it takes up mental energy. It fogs my clarity. It weighs on me throughout the day. Oh, I've got to do this. I've got to do that. I've got to make, I just gotta make a decision.

Jason Shelfer:

Yeah, I feel like if we unpack overwhelm, it's really um a fragmented awareness. It's like I don't know. Yeah, it's so much going on that I can't just get focused and take that next logical step. Yes. You know, and it's crazy.

Jana Shelfer:

Because we always we always talk about opening our awareness, and then sometimes it feels like, okay, we got too much awareness. Right? Too much.

Jason Shelfer:

Yeah. The more we learn, the more we know we don't know.

Jana Shelfer:

And but the more we're open to all these things, and then all of a sudden I've got this problem of decision fatigue.

Jason Shelfer:

Yes.

Jana Shelfer:

So we've been talking in our household about how to simplify especially daily decisions.

Jason Shelfer:

Yeah. The things that we do every single day, how do we make a process or a system that takes a lot of the decision making out and gives us back that brain power or that energy, internal energy, to do the things that are are the the exciting, the new, the the move towards the next big thing.

Jana Shelfer:

For example, I have now simplified my wardrobe to I wear a colorful, flowy top and a pair of bright pants. Like just having those two. It doesn't matter if they match or not.

Jason Shelfer:

Right.

Jana Shelfer:

It's just having those two. I know that I wear those two items of clothing. It doesn't matter which one, and they're all kind of put together. That helps me.

Jason Shelfer:

Right. It's uh I've moved to just like a bright, solid top and either shorts or pants. Like it's and it's they're typically black or blue pants because for some reason I'm I get dirty.

Jana Shelfer:

It also helps to have a routine, which we have talked about morning routines, agnosium, yeah, right?

Jason Shelfer:

Yeah.

Jana Shelfer:

But it helps to have a routine. And I know that I've started to it's it's like I need structure.

Jason Shelfer:

Well, so so we drift. Yeah, like that's and that's I think people will feel that that if they look around them and say, okay, what's going on? Is this all the decisions that we're put that are put in front of us, even if we don't realize we're spending energy on it, we will notice that that energetic pull gets us to to drift away from what we're doing, what we're wanting, what we're doing, what where we're going.

Jana Shelfer:

I mean, for example, what are we having for dinner? I'm hungry, what is there to eat? Those tend to be conversations that we have at least three times a day.

Jason Shelfer:

Yeah, and so and if you or if you pause or if you look back on those times where someone says, What are we having for dinner? you will immediately feel your energy shift in that question because there's a lot of brain power and a lot of emotional, physical, spiritual energy that goes into it.

Jana Shelfer:

Yes. Oh my god.

Jason Shelfer:

That is probably one of the simplest questions that people around the world are asking themselves multiple times a day, and you will feel your energy start to drain just thinking about the answer to a simple question. What are we gonna eat?

Jana Shelfer:

What what's for dinner, dear?

Jason Shelfer:

And that's why we often say, I don't care. So we allow so we push that off on someone else.

Jana Shelfer:

I do care because I've started to notice that my body is not where I want it to be. And so the I do care and I do want to take responsibility, however, I sometimes just don't have the energy.

Jason Shelfer:

We want to go with what's easiest.

Jana Shelfer:

Yep.

Jason Shelfer:

So a lot of times we will spend all this energy thinking about what we want so that it's easy.

Jana Shelfer:

So let's make it easy.

Jason Shelfer:

Right.

Jana Shelfer:

Let's make it easy. Here's another example. This morning I woke up to meditate, and since the new year, since January 1st, my meditation app that I have used now for years, it's not letting me log in. And I have come to the computer, I've put my finger on the thing, you know, where they take your fingerprint, and that's not working. I've looked in my app where I keep my passwords and it's not in there. And I'm like, ah, why I try to really put all my passwords in there, but I didn't get that one. And so every day I wake up and I'm like, I really need to meditate. And I try doing it without my app, but I need my app. And it feels like there's this mountain of decisions that need to be made just to get my app working so that I can meditate and make my day go smoothly.

Jason Shelfer:

Yeah, and that makes me wonder have we but gotten desensitized to creating that this our own systems and fallen into the other people, the world's systems, which is making it even harder. You took all the steps to have the applause easy to get to, and then uh iPhone updates, right?

Jana Shelfer:

They have a they have an upgrade or even the app upgrades does something.

Jason Shelfer:

So you've gotten yourself into a system helping using someone else's systems, and when they upgrade, sometimes we it changes the way we have to do things.

Jana Shelfer:

Okay, so I'm really glad that we're talking about this today because there is a thing of emotional fatigue. I know, I mean, we've talked about it with decluttering and how that creates clarity. It's the same with decisions. Declutter your decisions for the day, and all of a sudden you will have extra space in your brain.

Jason Shelfer:

Extra space, extra energy, just room, extra room. I mean, there's just all sorts of uh it just gives you the opportunity to create your own momentum towards wherever you're going.

Jana Shelfer:

Yes.

Jason Shelfer:

And I I love that. And what we did for the food was simple. It was cre getting a food service.

Jana Shelfer:

So we this year we have started doing HelloFresh again. Now we've done this many times in the past, and it it it's like we get on this routine, we do great with it, and then for some reason we either drift because we're traveling or because we think, oh, is this really you know saving us any money? I don't think it's really saving us money. Do we have time?

Jason Shelfer:

Saving us a lot of money, I don't think, but what it is doing, and what I didn't recognize is it takes that decision out because when we order the meals through HelloFresh or or any food service, it's a or meal delivery service.

Jana Shelfer:

You're getting all of the ingredients.

Jason Shelfer:

It takes longer to make, however, the it's fun.

Jana Shelfer:

And the energy of going to the store and even just putting all the ingredients. I mean, I know, oh, I'm so glad we're talking about this because there is mental energy in the street.

Jason Shelfer:

There's so much mental energy. And how often do we sit and think about what we are going to eat until it gets to a point where it's like I'm hungry? I'm getting hangry. I'll eat crap.

Jana Shelfer:

Yeah, yeah, that's what we do.

Jason Shelfer:

And and because I'm eating crap.

Jana Shelfer:

Or we go to the grocery store at at that time. We finally decide, we go to the grocery store to get the ingredients, and then while we're there, we are hungry, and these other things start getting our awareness. We're like, hey, let's just grab some of this for tomorrow.

Jason Shelfer:

All these things you were thinking about making with it.

Jana Shelfer:

That's true too.

Jason Shelfer:

Yeah.

Jana Shelfer:

Like a lot of times we'll have good intentions, we'll buy great food, and then we come home and it does go bad because we'd forget the the recipes that we were creating in our minds.

Jason Shelfer:

At that and then all the vegetables go to soup in that bottom drawer.

Jana Shelfer:

Okay, so we're simplifying our decisions. We are simplifying our decisions. And I am so excited about this. I know for bills, uh, a lot of people have automatic bill pay that simplifies decisions. I also know that sometimes, not to be a devil's advocate here, but sometimes when you get in those apps and they automatically charge you every month, sometimes if that's not on your getting charged for. So be careful when you're simplifying your decisions.

Jason Shelfer:

When you find you've got three Netflix accounts, yeah, right? Because you travel all the time.

Jana Shelfer:

I'm like, why do we have three?

Jason Shelfer:

Maybe we didn't uh oh no my gosh.

Jana Shelfer:

Okay, simplifying decisions. All right, so Jason, give us the wrap.

Jason Shelfer:

I think the wrap is that decision making is the bottleneck for getting where we want to go. It's it's finding a way to declutter the decisions. So make it simple. Like you you've we've done our outfits, we've done our food, we're we're electronically getting simplified. We've done our emotions.

Jana Shelfer:

I mean, everything is a decision. We are constantly making these micro decisions throughout the day.

Jason Shelfer:

And we've decided that house clutter, we're starting with the garage next week. So it's decluttering that decision-making process, finding a way to simplify in that. And we've shown a couple of examples with our food, with bill pay, things like that.

Jana Shelfer:

Morning routines, afternoon routines, evening routines. I I think a sleep routine has helped me so much because I know the minute I go to bed, I'm doing the I'm getting out the remote, I'm getting out the fan, I'm getting, I'm doing blah, blah, blah.

Jason Shelfer:

Yes. So once we start taking the decision away and saying this is how it works, now we get to pick, okay, where am I going and what is the path to that? And now we've got more clarity and awareness for that specific pass, the path. The more, the more our awareness is scattered, the more it feels like there's too many options, there's too many ways to go, and now I can't make decisions. And we tell ourselves that we're stuck.

Jana Shelfer:

I love it. Thanks for joining us.

Jason Shelfer:

Keep Living Lucky®.

Jana Shelfer:

Make a decision to listen to us every single day. There you go. Bye bye. If the idea of Living Lucky® appeals to you, visit us at LivingLucky.com.

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Jana Shelfer

Host
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Jason Shelfer

Host