When Decision Fatigue Hits: How To Preserve Your Mental Energy

Welcome to The Flourishing Teacher's Field Guide.

It’s time to expose the hidden drain on your mental energy…

Decision fatigue. 

If you want to stop feeling overwhelmed by the end of your teaching day, this one's for you!

Let's jump in...

When Did Making Decisions Become So Exhausting?

I used to think that being frazzled was a sign of a job well done.

And you know what?

Not one member of my senior management team ever told me otherwise.

At the end of a long school day, the thought of planning tomorrow’s lessons frequently felt overwhelming. Choosing which pile of marking to tackle first seemed impossible.

I can remember standing in front of my fridge, completely unable to decide what to cook. I got genuinely worried about myself for a while there, my brain full of fog and no idea whether to defrost a pizza or get the pasta on.

Sound familiar?

It wasn't until I realised I was lost in a fog of decision fatigue that I understood what was happening. 

It’s estimated that, as teachers, we make around 1,500 decisions every teaching day. From "Should I address that minor disruption?" to "How do I explain this concept differently?" we're constantly making choices that impact our students' learning and wellbeing.

As we explored in our recent article on taming your inner critic, this constant mental drain can lead to teacher burnout and negatively impact our work-life balance.

Understanding decision fatigue changed everything for me.

Learning how to manage it transformed both my teaching and personal life…

3 Science-Based Strategies For Mastering Decision Fatigue

1. Choice Architecture: Design Your Way To Better Decisions

This is going to sound crazy, but…

Think of your classroom and daily routine as a machine, system, map or building in which every element can either help or hinder your decision-making process. 

Designing systems that remove friction and cut down the need for continued decision-making automatically reduces stress and mental load.

We’re talking about a serious decrease in decision making.

How to implement it:

• Create clear "if-then" protocols for common situations: a standard operating procedure for your responses 

• Set up your classroom to minimize repeated decisions: having a place for everything helps cut down the clutter and clarify confusion 

• Establish routines that become automatic: routines and systems might seem artificial but they’re often the key to authenticity 

Research shows: Studies in behavioral economics reveal that strategic environment design can reduce decision fatigue by up to 70% (Thaler & Sunstein, 2021).

2. Energy Alignment: Work With Your Natural Rhythms

Your decision-making ability isn't constant throughout the day - it follows your natural energy patterns. 

When you’re mindful enough to recognise your energy levels, intellectual and emotional clarity and objectivity, you’ll put yourself in the best place to make effective decisions.

What’s more, you’ll make them once, without second-guessing yourself.

This connects directly to our article on critical teacher wellbeing strategies and honouring your natural cycles.

Key actions:

• Schedule your most important decisions for your peak energy time: we rarely have to make critical decisions on the spot

• Save routine tasks for when your energy naturally dips

• Build in regular mental breaks to recharge: just because you’ve been asked a question, it doesn’t mean you have to answer right now

The science: Research from chronobiology shows that aligning tasks with your natural energy rhythms can improve decision quality by up to 40% (Walker, 2019).

3. Decision Batching: Group Similar Choices Together

Just as batch cooking saves time, batching similar decisions preserves mental energy.

It’s all about getting yourself in the decision-making zone for shorter, more efficient periods of time.

Practical steps:

• Plan your lessons for the week in one session

• Handle all emails at set times

• Group marking into focused blocks

• Speak to parents or students in pre-set slots

• Create emotional and professional boundaries that allow you to focus on one thing at a time

Evidence base: Studies indicate that decision batching can reduce cognitive load by up to 50% and improve decision quality (Levitin, 2020).

Making It Work In Your Classroom

Implementing these strategies isn't about being perfect - it's about progress. 

I’m a very long way from perfect - I’m just trying to be better today than I was yesterday.

Start small, perhaps with one strategy that resonates most.

The goal isn't to eliminate decisions but to preserve your mental energy for the ones that matter most - like supporting that student who needs extra help or innovating your teaching methods.

And hopefully, that means you’ll gradually become a little more self-aware, clearer in your decision making and more likely to be able to string a sentence together at the end of a busy day!

What Are You Waiting For?

We believe that teachers achieve extraordinary things under challenging circumstances and that we all deserve to be valued, supported and celebrated.

That's what this newsletter is all about.

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Thank You For All You Do

Remember, making hundreds of decisions each day is part of what makes teaching both challenging and rewarding. 

Every decision has the potential to change a life and create a legacy. But you don't have to let the job drain you completely.

By managing your decision-making energy more effectively, you're not just helping yourself - you're modelling important life skills for your students too.

Here's a quick reminder of our strategies for mastering decision fatigue:

Remember, you're more than your marking, your lesson observations and your planning.

You're you. And that's all you need to be.