Psychology says people who automate small decisions of their life may be reducing mental fatigue, and conserving energy for what really matters

Imagine waking up on a busy Monday morning, and having to make several decisions like what to eat, what to wear, which perfume to use. Instead of standing in front of the fridge and wardrobe wondering whether to make eggs, cereal, oatmeal, or toast, or which dress to put on you instinctively reach for the same bowl of yogurt and fruit you've eaten for months. You also pull out the same shirt, gown, socks and pants that you have worn umpteenth number of times. It isn't because you dislike variety. It's because you've stopped thinking about the decision altogether.

While this routine may seem boring to some, psychologists say it can actually serve a useful purpose. Automating everyday small decisions may help reduce the number of small decisions your brain has to make before work, leaving more mental energy available for the choices that matter later in the day.

The idea is rooted in a well-known psychological concept called decision fatigue, the tendency for the quality of our decisions to decline after we've made many choices.

Why small decisions can drain your mental energy

From the moment we wake up, our brains begin making decisions. What should I wear? Should I check my phone first? Coffee or tea? Which route should I take to work?

Individually, these choices seem insignificant. Collectively, however, they require mental effort.

Psychologists Roy Baumeister, Kathleen Vohs, and colleagues proposed the Strength Model of Self-Control, which suggests that self-control and deliberate decision-making rely on limited cognitive resources. As those resources are used throughout the day, people may become more mentally fatigued, making it harder to focus, resist distractions, or make thoughtful decisions.

Although later researchers have debated whether this "resource" is literally depleted, there is broad agreement that repeatedly making choices creates cognitive strain and can impair decision quality.

The science behind decision fatigue

One of the most influential studies on this topic was the 2008 “Making choices impairs subsequent self-control: A limited-resource account of decision making, self-regulation, and active initiative.”

Researchers led by Kathleen Vohs found that participants who were asked to make numerous choices performed worse on subsequent tasks requiring self-control than those who made fewer decisions. The researchers concluded that the act of choosing itself can temporarily reduce people's capacity for later self-regulation.

In everyday life, this means your brain may benefit from reducing unnecessary decisions before tackling important ones like solving problems at work, managing finances, or making critical judgments. This is why many productivity experts recommend simplifying routine parts of daily life.

In a landmark 2010 study published in the European Journal of Social Psychology, researcher Phillippa Lally and colleagues tracked how people developed everyday habits.

They found that repeating the same behavior in the same context gradually increased its automaticity. Over time, the behavior required less conscious thought because the surrounding cues, such as waking up, entering the kitchen, or preparing coffee, began triggering it automatically.