Decision fatigue Is killing you (and your business) - how to fix it

In a given day, your brain has a finite amount of decision making power. Exhaust it, and you’re fried.

This isn’t just emotional, but physiological. Despite only being 2% of your total body weight, your brain uses up to 20% of your body’s total energy.

Throughout the day, your brain’s prefrontal cortex is burning glucose. When that glucose runs low, you get that “fried” feeling. No creativity, no motivation — scarcity mindset.

The decisions that wear your down aren’t just the big high-stakes ones — in fact, your brain doesn’t distinguish. “What should I have for lunch?” and “should I make this new hire?” use the same circuitry.

Additionally, your brain registers “decision making” in the same way that it measures “motivation” and “will power”.

Here’s what this means:

Small, trivial decisions are stealing your business’ most valuable resource - your mind and your motivation.

Why Founders Are Especially Vulnerable

As a founder, you’re in a unique predicament with this decision fatigue as:

1. You need to make more decisions than the average adult
2. Your mind is probably your business’ most valuable

These decisions are not unique to your work life. All the “home life” decisions are taking away from the same brain - you’re body doesn’t care if you’re “mom/dad” in the morning/evening and “CEO” during the day.

The Fix — Making Your Decisions Ahead of Time

We’ve all heard of Steve Jobs’ famous example of wearing the same thing every day to minimize decision fatigue. He didn’t want to waste energy on things that aren’t important, like his clothes.

Similarly, you can do the same thing, in every area of your life. It requires some planning, organization and systems.

Here are are ideas:

• Build an “Ideal Week Calendar” so that how you spend your time is pre-planned each week. I build a new one each quarter, based on that quarter’s goals or life situations (kids sports, etc).
• Build a “Weekly Review Workflow” that you follow each week to plan the following week. I plan my next week each Friday when my energy is high. This allows me to go into the weekend (and the following Monday) with a clear mind.
• Create "Personal SOPs” for anything that you do more than once (ordering groceries, paying bills, doing your budget, etc). This allows you to figure out the process once and blindly follow it from then on.
• Hire an EA to own scheduling, email triage & other logistics. Not only are these low level tasks stealing your time, but they’re sucking your energy. Delegate them!
• Batch your activities.
  • Answering all emails at 4 p.m. instead of reacting to them all day
  • Having one day per week for meetings (instead of 7 scattered calls)
  • Recording 3 podcasts in one sitting
  • Planning all meals on Sunday instead of asking “What’s for dinner?” every night

Build More Days That Feel Clear, Not Chaotic

As I write this, it’s a cool, sunny Wednesday morning in Austin, Texas. I’m drinking a cortado at a quiet coffee shop. I worked out this morning, our meals are planned, and our evening activity (kids’ soccer) is already on the calendar.

I have zero meetings today.

Just one focus: write this newsletter.

That clarity isn’t accidental. It’s the result of systems I’ve designed to reduce decisions — so I can preserve my mind for what actually matters.

Every Wednesday this quarter looks like this because I’ve:

• Pre-planned my week
• Batched my work
• Delegated logistics to my Assistant
• Removed as many decisions as possible from my day

Do things still go sideways? Of course.

But 80% of the time, I’m in control — not because I’m grinding harder, but because I’m deciding less.

And honestly, I think this is one of the biggest reasons our business went from $0 to $800K+ ARR in under a year.

Not because I worked more. But because I protected my mind with systems.

🎯 The Big Idea

You don’t need more motivation. You don’t need a productivity hack. You need a system that protects your decision-making power — so your best energy is reserved for your best work.

Because at the end of the day, focus isn’t something you force. It’s something you create.

And it starts by making fewer decisions — and better systems.

This is what FreedUp does - we’ll match you with a high-powered Assistant, train them and build your custom “Assistant Operation System” so that you can delegation 50% of your decision making.

Want to talk through it? Email me and we’ll get a meeting together: aaron@freedup.life

Best,

Aaron