Overcome Decision Fatigue and Write More by Rochelle Melander

I’m writing this at 5:00 PM. Like my sweet dogs Sophie and Muffin Man, I’d rather be napping. I’d intended to blog this morning, but I had to get in my NaNoWriMo words, attend a meeting for work, and answer a few of the emails in my inbox. So here I sit at the end of the day, trying to decide how to write about decision fatigue. At least now I know why I am having trouble deciding what words to use.

According to research, we have a finite amount of mental energy for self-control. Making decisions depletes that energy, and it becomes harder for us to make good decisions. In his article ”Do you suffer from Decision Fatigue?” John Tierney wrote: “The more choices you make throughout the day, the harder each one becomes for your brain, and eventually it looks for shortcuts, usually in either of two very different ways.” Either we make a reckless choice (Oh sure, why not, I’ll eat a piece of cheesecake!) or we avoid making a choice (You decide, honey.).

Social psychologist Roy Baumeister has discovered that the people who succeed at self-control structure their lives to conserve willpower. In other words, we beat decision fatigue by avoiding it—at least in the crucial parts of our lives.

So what does that mean for writers? Here are three suggestions for avoiding decision fatigue and writing more:

1. Set a specific writing goal. National Novel Writing Month participants have a specific writing goal: write 1666 words a day for 30 days in order to finish a 50,000-word novel. Choose what you want to accomplish in the next week or month and write it down. Be as specific as possible. Instead of adding, “write articles” to your to do list, make a list of the specific stories you want to write and the steps it will take to complete the articles. With this information, you will approach each writing session with a sense of what you need to accomplish. You will not have to decide what to do with your time.

2. Schedule your writing. Instead of writing when you have time or feel like it, schedule time to write like you would schedule a coffee date with a friend. I often do this at the beginning of the month, before the calendar gets too filled up with other commitments. Once you have these in the schedule, treat the sessions with the same respect you give your annual check-up. Show up no matter what. Soon, your writing sessions will be as habitual as eating lunch.

3. Plan ahead. At the end of my daily writing session, I plan what I will work on during the next session. I leave myself a note about it so that when I start my writing session the next day, I can use my decision-making muscles to choose words instead of deciding between projects.

These three simple tools have helped me write ten books and hundreds of articles fast and relatively pain free! What do you do to control decision fatigue and write more? Leave a comment below.

Author Bio Rochelle Melander is a certified professional coach and the author of 10 books, including a new book to help fiction and nonfiction writers write fast: Write-A-Thon: Write Your Book in 26 Days (And Live to Tell About It) (October 2011). Melander teaches professionals how to get published, establish credibility, and navigate the new world of social media. In 2006, Rochelle founded Dream Keepers Writing Group, a program that teaches writing to at-risk tweens and teens. Visit her online at www.writenowcoach.com.