Highlights
Introduction
- Making decisions uses considerable mental energy which is limited (00:42 ).
- Decision fatigue is real (00:52).
- Educators make a lot of decisions - some significant - so it is definitely worth looking at ways to minimise the number of small decisions we make daily, to reserve energy for the big ones (01:42).
Small Decisions
- Time for a brain dump (01:58).
- List the small decisions you have to make every day. Examples (02:19):
- What to eat for lunch/dinner.
- When to each lunch/dinner.
- What time to wake up and go to bed.
- What to do at the gym.
- What to wear to go to the gym.
- What to wear to work.
What Can You Automate, Delegate or Eliminate?
- Automate: make automatic, or at least systematised (03:10).
- Delegate: perhaps to a partner, family member, friend or professional service provider (03:31).
- Eliminate: get rid of completely! (03:48)
Automate
- Fully automatic: social media, direct debits, comment bank (05:19).
- Systematised: podcast workflow (Notion template), shopping list (Bring), The Teaching Space Extra (08:00).
Delegate
- Gardening, cleaning and meal planning (Hello Fresh) - I fully acknowledge my privilege in being able to do this (10:33).
- Skill swap with friends or family - just ask! I now have a new podcast interview editor… (12:03).
Eliminate
- To eliminate decisions entirely, form habits (e.g. gym every day etc). Check out habits podcast episode theteachingspace.com/49, as well as James Clear’s book, Atomic Habits (13:34).
- Examples: wake up time (see the sleep episode theteachingspace.com/109), clothing (like Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg and Barack Obama!) (14:22).
- Community example: Bob’s robot mower and mulcher (16:05).
Postpone?
- Sometimes it is better to postpone (16:45).
Over to You
- What about you? Let’s chat in the community (17:15 ).
Helpful links
