This topic has been on my mind for a while. I first read about it in Greg McKeown’s Essentialism but am fairly certain it is a well-known affliction. I tiredly pumped my fists in the air after reading: AHA! That explains it!

Our brains are magnificent yet fragile little goop bowls. Decision fatigue is intense mental overload resulting from constant decision/choice-making. Our ability to discern and judge deteriorates after a long series of decisions and when further impaired by exhaustion, distraction or stress, we rely mainly on estimations and emotional responses.

The past year has increased our collective suffering of this affliction exponentially, especially for essential workers of any sort. To force body and mind to function at levels never before experienced is a surefire way to deplete energy levels; the law of least effort to conserve our mental functions has not been possible for some time now.

From Healthline:

“All people, regardless of profession, are subject to decision fatigue,” said Dr. Michael Wetter. There has perhaps been no greater stressor than that of the COVID-19 pandemic. It has resulted in economic, health, political, and family-based stressors to almost everyone. It’s not simply that people are making more decisions. It’s also that those decisions are resting on more uncertainty with more impactful consequences.”

And for all of you now working from home:

“…we aren’t giving our brains the chance to task transition between meetings when we would usually move from office to office…Our brains take that physical transition to clear thoughts from one meeting and begin to focus on the next. With stacked virtual meetings, we are ending one and starting the next with no physical transition for brains, and decision fatigue can set in.”

See? Zoom Gloom is not just in your head!

Take Back Your Right to Stroll

Daniel Kahnmeman is one brilliant mind. Winning a Nobel Prize in Economics is not an everyday feat.

In Thinking Fast and Slow he shares one of his greatest pleasures: a daily four-mile walk. He discovered the perfect pace, more of a stroll with no need to push himself, in which he could walk and still think his deep, Daniel thoughts. If he pushed beyond the “stroll” speed, physical and mental activities had to compete for the same, limited resources. The result? He can do one or the other, but not both:

“Accelerating beyond my strolling speed completely changes the experience of walking….the transition to a faster walk brings about a sharp deterioration in my ability to think coherently. As I speed up…my ability to bring a train of thought to a conclusion is impaired accordingly.”

We need to take back our right to stroll. Sprinting in circles like a headless chicken is counter-productive.

We have lost our ability to filter what is important and what isn’t.

Greg McKeown, ESSENTIALISM

The brain consumes roughly 20% of our energy when we are at rest, more when we are focused on solving cognitively-challenging problems. The average six year old’s brain, going through pretty intense developmental changes, can use up to 60% of the body’s energy. No wonder kids and puppies need constant snacks and wee naps.

If this were all true before 2020, then it is no wonder our poor little brains feel even more taxed today, as daily decisions and choices have the potential to affect our health or those of our loved ones.

Decision Fatigue and Virtual Fatigue is Giving Me a Whopper of a Headache

This year I decided it was time to try out virtual supply teaching. A day of virtual can feel like a week of classroom teaching, especially as this is fairly new territory for me. When the regular teacher sends me her plans for the day, I need a nap after imagining the hours she spent on the lesson prep. Juggling 25 students online simultaneously, with differing needs and learning profiles, takes serious planning and expert-level execution. But even an expert has to ask: How am I supposed to prioritize these needs when every, single student deserves to be the top priority?

I learned about the origin of the word “Priority” in Essentialism: its introduction into the English language was as a SINGULAR noun meaning: one thing that is more important than another, and it remained so for the next 500 years. But, good old super-species pluralized the word in the 1900’s. Now we have priorities: we believe in our ability to juggle multiple first, important things. “Multi-Tasking” replaced “Priority” – something our brains are not capable of doing without some serious smoke pouring out of our ears.

Thank goodness the students are now pros at virtual learning. Their brains have adapted in ways mine have not. I taught grade two this week. My brain was on overload and I, usually fairly adept at operating a basic google meet, was struggling to do just that.

One student acknowledged my struggle: she unmuted her mic, leaned over her arms that rested upon her makeshift desk and gently offered:

“Why don’t you let me present my screen so I can show the students what to do?”

Decision fatigue did not stop me from screaming: YES PLEASE!

While she was setting things up, another little girl offered an additional compassionate hand:

“You look pretty today, Ms. T.”

Oh my goodness. When a seven-year-old is trying to lift you up while you are so obviously failing at your job, well, that is enough to melt your heart. And diminish whatever ego you had remaining.

When I thanked her and shared that I had made an extra effort this morning (lipstick, necklace), I could hear the guffaw from a nearby, off-screen parent.

Those students were little troopers. They worked around my sore and tired brain, triumphantly clapping for me when I was able to regain my abilities to navigate the virtual world:

“There! See! You can do it!”

If you want to feel every decade of your age, teach a virtual class of seven-year-olds.

One of the most rewarding things about working with children is watching their innate compassion in action. Pity is not yet part of their emotional repertoire – something adults often exhibit from an emotionally safe distance. A child’s compassion evokes a feeling of shared experience, a willingness to get involved and offer non-judgmental help. This doesn’t necessarily mean finding a solution to the problem – just being there to walk with you.

The virtual teaching experience made me reflect on my early days teaching in brick and mortar elementary classrooms. I remember a grade three student sharing a painful experience to the whole class, in the middle of an impromptu science lesson about the physical and emotional health of caged animals. You could have heard a sheet of paper hitting the ground. The students all turned to look at him but not with looks of horror or morbid curiosity. Their gaze was that of understanding. Some even nodded with probable shared experience.

While my heart was silently sobbing on the floor, these kids were stepping up to the plate to emotionally support their comrade. As we transitioned to recess, a friend put his arm around the student and said: “You pick the game this recess”. No comment on the disclosure, no questions. Just a simple offer of safety within the protected fold of the flock. Beautiful.

If you want to see the true uplifting and comforting nature of compassion, teach a class of seven-year-olds.

Cabin Decision Fatigue

Dave and I are juggling a few projects right now with the property, and making even the most basic decisions is becoming increasingly difficult and frustrating. If it’s not the skyrocketing price of lumber, then it is finding the right people to assist us.

One project is proceeding smoothly while another…not so much: negotiations with a vendor regarding a product we need delivered to the property.

Negotiations are not going well. It’s not even about price. It is like we are speaking different languages and talking about two entirely different projects.

For example, a conversation might sound like this: