August 19, 2025 • 21 mins
Ever hit that 3 PM wall where your brain seemingly shuts down and productivity nosedives? I spent years thinking this was just an energy problem, throwing coffee and snacks at it with minimal results. But through working with clients and examining my own patterns, I discovered something revolutionary: what we're experiencing isn't primarily an energy crash—it's decision fatigue.
Your brain has a finite capacity for making decisions each day. By mid-afternoon, most of us have depleted that resource on hundreds of low-stakes choices—what to wear, what to eat, which email to answer first, how to respond to that meeting request. When we finally get to the strategic work that actually moves our business forward, our decision-making muscle is exhausted.
This revelation came while working with a restaurant owner who, despite excellent sleep and nutrition habits, still crashed every evening. After analyzing her schedule, we realized she was burning through her decision-making capacity on trivial matters before tackling important work. Sound familiar? I was doing the same thing—wasting my prime cognitive hours on decisions that didn't matter, then wondering why I couldn't focus on strategic planning later in the day.
The solution transformed both our workdays: automating routine decisions, time-blocking high-stakes work during peak cognitive hours, creating standard responses for common situations, and developing clear criteria for opportunities. Within three weeks, my client reported feeling focused throughout her entire day, not just during former "slump" times.
If you're experiencing that mid-day crash, it's not a character flaw or lack of willpower—it's feedback from your brain that you need more clarity around priorities. The people who seem to have endless focus aren't superhuman; they're simply better at managing their decisions. Ready to reclaim your afternoons? Start by mapping your decision points and protecting your peak hours for what truly matters in your business.
Thanks for listening!
Connect With Me:
📩 Join my email list: https://www.jenncody.com
📱 DM me on Instagram: @solutonsbyjenncody
If you enjoyed this episode, share it with a friend who needs to hear this message!
🎧 Subscribe to and Review The Create Your Day Podcast on:
📌 Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Buzzsprout
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Hey everyone, welcome back to the Create your Day
podcast.
My name is Jen Cody, I am yourhost and your business
strategist bestie.
So I want to talk to you guystoday about something that
happens to me or was happeningto me, I should say, really,
really often and it's the 3 pmcrash.
(00:37):
For me it's 3 pm, and I knowthat's kind of cliche, right.
We talk about, like, people whoget to three o'clock in the
afternoon and they just need alittle pick me up, and so I
didn't really think there wasanything wrong with the fact
that I would get sluggish aroundthat time of day, and I'm
pretty sure you know what I'mtalking about, even if for you
it's not 3 pm.
Maybe it's happening earlier inthe day or later in the day.
(00:59):
But we start our day withreally good intentions, right,
our morning routine down pat,we're focused, we're productive,
we're powering through morningtasks, feeling like we're
crushing it.
And then for me I would get toabout 3 o'clock sometimes
earlier, actually, like around 2o'clock, and I would feel like
I just hit this brick wall.
(01:21):
My brain shuts off.
If there was something thatseemed urgent earlier in the day
, it does not seem urgentanymore.
It doesn't even seem manageable.
It's like impossible for me tofocus on, and I would find
myself staring at my computer,going from tab to tab to tab,
trying to find, like, what'sgoing to spark my energy.
(01:41):
Maybe I would take a socialmedia break, thinking it's only
going to be for a minute, andthen we all know how that goes.
You know, 30 minutes later I'mlooking down some rabbit hole on
Instagram.
And my solution for this was todo a few different things.
Maybe I would make some coffee,maybe I would have a snack,
like a yogurt, something likethat.
(02:01):
Maybe I would take the dog fora walk.
I would do something to kind ofremove myself from what I was
doing and then come back to it,thinking that this was magically
going to make me feel focusedagain.
And then I realized, through aconversation with a really,
really good colleague of mine,that I didn't think this was
(02:23):
about energy anymore.
Colleague of mine that I didn'tthink this was about energy
anymore, and so let me tell youthe story.
So I was talking with one of myreally good clients and really
good friend also.
She owns a restaurant, and inmy conversations with her I
realized that she was having thesame thing like just pumping
herself full of coffee everysingle day to try and get
(02:45):
through the day, and I wasalways kind of referring to this
as this 3 pm slump, like that'sjust what happens With her.
It would be a little bit laterin the day because her days were
much longer right in therestaurant business.
She's there until 10 o'clock atnight.
So this would happen like 6o'clock 7 o'clock.
She's in this slump and feelinglike I just need the day to be
(03:06):
over.
And it wasn't until we startedworking on what her day actually
looked like that we realizedwhat the issue was.
And she was frustrated, right,because she's telling me Jen,
I'm getting all the sleep that Ineed, I eat well, I take care
of myself, I exercise.
Why am I not able to powerthrough this?
So I started asking her abouthow she was spending her morning
(03:32):
and there were a lot ofdecisions that were happening in
her day and every singledecision that she was making,
from the time she woke up untilthis slump, was really important
.
Right, there were to her.
At that moment she was thinkingabout, like, what do I wear to
work today?
What am I going to have forbreakfast?
(03:53):
What?
Let me sit down and answer someemails, let me pay some bills,
let me figure out whether or notI have calls that I have to
reschedule this morning.
What's the next project I wantto do?
What do I want to get donebefore I get to the restaurant?
And we realized as we startedtalking more about this that all
(04:15):
of her decision making that washappening before she got to
work was on things that were notmoving the needle forward for
her at work or at the restaurant.
So she wasn't reallyexperiencing an energy crash.
In my opinion, it was a littlebit more like decision fatigue.
And this happens a lot of thetime in business because our
(04:38):
brain really does have a finiteamount of decision-making
capacity each day.
So if you're like most peopleout there running a business,
you're burning through thatcapacity before you even think
about working on what's reallyimportant.
So right now, if you'relistening, think about your
typical morning.
When you wake up, youimmediately start making
(05:00):
decisions.
Right?
What time are you going to getup in the morning?
Setting the alarm the nightbefore?
Decisions right.
What time are you going to getup in the morning?
Setting the alarm the nightbefore?
We all hit snooze once in awhile, right.
So how do we backtrack Like?
That takes some decision making.
What are we going to wear?
What are we going to have forbreakfast?
Then we check our phone.
Right, some of us out therewe're checking our phone before
we even get out of bed.
That's our first decisionmistake right there.
(05:21):
Suddenly, we are hit with thisflood of micro decisions.
And these micro decisions we'vetalked about this they are
other people's problems, notours.
Which email are we going toread first?
Are we going to respond now?
Are we going to respond later?
Do I want to check out socialmedia right now?
If I do, am I going to sit hereand engage on Instagram and
(05:44):
Facebook and LinkedIn before myfeet even hit the floor?
So now you get up, you do youknow shower, get ready for bed,
get ready for your day, startyou know driving to the office
or going to the restaurant orsitting at your desk, whatever.
That is more decisions to bemade.
Which projects are we going totackle first?
(06:05):
Am I going to take thisimpromptu call from a client?
How am I going to handle thisquestion from a team member?
How many of you walk throughthe door if you walk through the
door to a team and youimmediately are hit with a bunch
of other decisions that havenothing to do with what you had
planned that day.
So by lunchtime yourdecision-making muscle is really
(06:26):
tired, but you don't reallynotice because you're still
running on that momentum.
You have that morning momentum,your caffeine, whatever that
looks like, and then the slumphits.
Like I said, for me two, threeo'clock, for my clients it's six
o'clock at night.
Your brain says I'm done, I'mthrowing in the towel, and
(06:46):
sometimes it's really not thatyou're physically tired, you're
not looking to go to bed, you'renot looking to take a nap, it's
just that your decision-makingcapacity is really, really
tapped out.
So all of a sudden, the projectthat you're starting at three
o'clock in the afternoon thatshould take 45 minutes an hour,
now it's taking two hours, threehours.
You're scrolling on your phoneinstead of making progress on
(07:09):
your goals.
This is why even simple, simpletasks feel really overwhelming
in the afternoon, because ourbrains are desperately trying to
avoid making any more decisions.
So what does it do?
It defaults to the path ofleast resistance, which for us
in this digital age, usuallymeans mindless scrolling or busy
(07:32):
work that feels productive andthat does not actually move our
business forward.
So I learned this lesson, like Isaid, through these
conversations with my client,and then I didn't realize how
much it applied to me until Iwas in the middle of doing
something new in my business,trying to launch my new program,
(07:52):
and every afternoon I would hitthis wall where I just could
not think strategically anymore,find myself like jumping from
going through the landing pageand creating the course outline,
and I would find myself jumpingfrom there to oh you know what?
I think I want to reorganizeall the folders in my Google
(08:14):
Drive, or now seems like areally good time to find some
new images for my website, ormaybe I should check out a new
photographer to see if I shouldschedule a photo shoot for
myself.
Anything that felt like workbut didn't actually require
decision making.
So I got really frustrated andI kept thinking to myself like
what the heck is going on.
(08:34):
You, jen, you are a businessstrategist, you are supposed to
be able to power through this.
And then I thought about myclient in the restaurant and I
was like, oh, wait a minute, shewas supposed to be able to
power through this also.
So I realized it really wasdecision fatigue that was
affecting her and decisionfatigue that was affecting me,
(08:56):
and everything really clicked.
I wasn't lazy, I wasn'tunfocused, I wasn't approaching
my day backwards.
I was just using all of my bestdecision-making energy on
choices that I would call lowstakes.
Decision-making energy onchoices that I would call low
stakes, like who cares what I'meating for breakfast and you
know, like all of these thingsin the morning, they aren't low
(09:18):
stakes choices, and I'm leavingall of my most important work
for when my brain was alreadyexhausted.
And it's kind of like.
I don't know if anybody elseout there does this, but
sometimes if there's something Iwant to do, like read a book
for pleasure or watch a guiltypleasure reality TV show, I will
(09:39):
have this thing in my brainwhere I need to check off all of
these boxes before I givemyself permission to actually go
enjoy the thing.
I do the same thing.
I didn't realize it, but Iactually do the same thing in my
work.
If there's something reallyimportant, I get excited by my
work, right?
So if I'm going to be filmingnew course material or something
(10:01):
like that, I look forward to it.
I get excited by it and I putit on my calendar and I will
look at it and I'm like, okay,calendar, and I will look at it
and I'm like, okay, before I dothat, I need to check off boxes
one through 10.
And that is what was actuallyworking against me is that box
one through 10 was taking up allof my decision-making and then,
when it came to the thing Ireally wanted to do, I didn't
(10:23):
have the energy in mydecision-making to do it.
Kind of like if you think aboutthe watching a TV show or
reading a book checking off allthe things youmaking to do it.
Kind of like if you think aboutthe watching a TV show or
reading a book checking off allthe things you want to do around
your house before you giveyourself permission, then you
sit down to watch the show andwhat happens?
You fall asleep because youjust can't fit any more things
into your day.
So what I did was completelyrestructured my day, which,
(10:47):
hello, create your day podcast.
That's why we're here.
So I want to share this with youbecause this was a game changer
.
So first, I really did try toautomate or pre-decide
everything I could.
So this is things like thealarm.
I wasn't thinking every night,what am I going to do tomorrow?
Just have an alarm that's setfor every day.
Do you have days where maybeyou're going to the gym so you
(11:09):
have to get up an hour earlier?
On those days, just have thealarm set and get up and use
that time for yourself, right?
So my morning routine becametotally automatic.
Maybe at one point I was makingwhat is it overnight oats for
breakfast in the morning, sotook that off my plate.
So same breakfast every day,same workout time, same outfit
(11:30):
formula, right?
Like what am I wearing?
Yes, I basically wear the sameshit every day, I feel like.
So second, I started timeblocking the high stakes
decisions.
So if you have ever watched mytime management course, we talk
a little bit about this Lookingat your week and figuring out
(11:52):
where are the really importantthings, where should they live
on my calendar before I put inany of that other stuff.
So my high stake decisionswould go on my peak decision
making hours.
I'm a morning person.
I'm sure some of you out thereare like Jen.
I make my best decisions at 11o'clock with three cups of
(12:13):
coffee to go, and I'm up till 2am.
Great, that's not me.
I'm a morning person.
So for me I wanna focus onthose things between like 8 am
and 11 am.
That's when I wanna make all mystrategic business decisions,
plan all of my content.
Anything that really requiresmy mental energy happens best
(12:34):
during those hours.
Then I'll create what I call adecision buffer and these are
responses to common situationsso that I don't have to decide
it in the moment.
So I have a standard responsefor networking invitations.
I get a lot of them.
I get a lot of emails asking meto go to different events.
(12:55):
I have a standard response andit just buys me time and then I
can think about it, but it's notgoing to pull me away in the
moment.
I have a process for handlingnew client requests and I'm
starting not there yet, but I'mstarting to develop this filter,
I guess you would say, which islike predetermined criteria for
(13:19):
saying yes or no to anopportunity, so that I'm not
just a yes person all the time.
So the results of all this thepurpose is that my slump while
it doesn't necessarily disappearcompletely, because I'm not
stopping working at 11 o'clockin the morning, but it becomes
more manageable and I'm notrelying on that time period for
(13:40):
making decisions that are superduper important anymore.
So there is a deeper lesson here, right, which to me, is where
it gets interesting, becausethis slump is not just about
decision fatigue.
That decision fatigue is asymptom.
And what is it a symptom of?
It's a symptom of not havingclarity around your priorities.
(14:02):
So when you know exactly whatyou're supposed to be working on
and why it has the prioritythat it has, you don't waste
mental energy debating withyourself over what you're
supposed to do next.
When you have clear criteriafor making decisions, which is
that filter I'm creating formyself, I'm not going to exhaust
(14:23):
myself anymore weighing outevery option.
It's easy.
It's a yes or a no.
It either checks the boxes orit doesn't.
And this is where a lot ofbusiness owners get it wrong.
They think that the solution tothat decision fatigue or the
afternoon fatigue is better timemanagement or more energy right
, more coffee.
But actually it's betterdecision management, not time
(14:47):
management.
So let's talk about whathappened with my client that I
was telling you about at therestaurant.
When she started implementingthis, she spent her Sunday
evening doing the Monday hourone.
That's what my time managementcourse is based on Monday hour
(15:07):
one.
And she did it on her Sunday,and I tell everybody when they
decide to take it on for thefirst time.
Do it when it's best for you.
Maybe Saturday mornings areyour best time to book out your
next week.
But this is when I want you todo what you would call, maybe,
your decision map.
I want you to pre-decide whenyou're going to check your email
(15:28):
.
How are you going to prioritizeclient work?
What is your standard responsegoing to be to all of the things
you can anticipate happening?
And this is what my client did.
She sat down, looked at hercalendar and she was like you
know what this week?
I know that some of mydistributors are going to be
asking me about my next menuitems, so I'm going to just go
(15:51):
ahead, create a standardresponse that's going to buy me
some time for that and get itset to go.
And the first week that she didthis, she definitely felt a
little bit better Not 100%better.
It wasn't like revolutionary,but it was noticeable.
But after about three weeks shestarted telling me I really
feel more focused.
I get to that point in the dayand I'm not worried about what's
(16:11):
going to happen next, because Itook care of it on Sunday.
So the real breakthroughactually came when she realized
wait a minute.
I'm not just more focused inthat part of the day, I'm
actually more focused all daybecause I'm not second guessing
myself.
That worry kept causing me tosecond guess what should I be
(16:33):
doing right now and am I doingwhat I'm supposed to be doing?
Well, if you plan it all out onSaturday morning or Sunday
night or Monday morning, youdon't have to second guess
yourself.
That's where the real magiccomes in.
You can reduce your decisionfatigue and it doesn't just fix
that slump.
You're actually improving yourentire day because you're not
(16:54):
constantly burning mental energyon things that don't matter.
So, as always, I want to reallytalk about how we can implement
this.
Let's get practical and notjust talk about it.
So we can start by kind oflooking at your decisions,
notice how many decisions you'remaking.
Don't try to change anythingyet, but just become aware.
(17:17):
I promise you're going to beshocked by the number.
I want you to just Maybe writedown notes app in your phone
notebook, whatever you're usingto do this kind of work and
write down the decisions thatyou're making.
Really write down the decisionsthat you're making, become
aware of them and then identifywhat are the decisions that are
(17:37):
draining you.
These are probably recurringthings that don't really matter,
but they're eating up yourmental energy.
Things like okay, if you don'tlike creating content which as
business owners now we have tocreate so much freaking content
right, if you don't like doingthat, that's probably draining
to you, so that would be adecision drainer.
(17:58):
So things like creating content, things like how to respond to
emails or fitting breaks intoyour day, then I want you to
create some systems.
These systems are going toeliminate or pre-decide those
drains.
So think about what decisionscan you batch together?
Can you create templates forcommon things?
(18:20):
Can you establish routines,non-negotiable routines, because
, guess what?
We can all establish routines.
It doesn't matter how manyroutines we have if we're not
actually following them.
So the routines have to benon-negotiable and that is how
we're going to decide what doesnot deserve our creative energy.
(18:41):
Then I want you to protect yourpeak decision-making hours,
identify what works well for you.
For a lot of people, it is thefirst two to three hours of
their workday.
You want to guard that timefiercely.
We don't want to let any ofthose drainers come into those
(19:04):
hours of your day.
So the system that you find hasto work with that result in
mind.
I always say we start with theend in mind.
What's the result that we want?
The result that we want is weget a good two, three, four hour
block of our workday where wecould do the work that matters
most and not be drained bydecision fatigue.
(19:25):
So what system will work foryou that's going to clear that
time?
Again, the system that I useand that I teach is to find time
on the weekend or first thingMonday morning to plot things on
your calendar so that you cankeep this time clear.
What I want you to remember isthat having this fatigue, having
(19:48):
this slump in your day, doesn'tmean there's something wrong
with you.
It's not a sign that you needmore willpower.
It's really feedback from yourbody, feedback from your brain,
that you're not being strategicabout how you're using your
energy.
And there are people that yousee, I'm sure that you think
they seem to have endless focus.
They seem to have endlessenergy.
And there are people that yousee, I'm sure that you think
they seem to have endless focus,they seem to have endless
(20:10):
energy.
They're like superhuman.
Right, they're not reallysuperhuman and they really don't
have endless focus.
They definitely do not haveendless energy, but they are
better at managing theirdecisions.
This afternoon, crash, do youhear my dog playing with her toy
in the background?
I apologize.
This afternoon, crash, it istrying to tell you something,
(20:32):
but the question is are youlistening to what your brain and
your body is telling you?
Listening and answering thatcall are what's going to make
the difference.
I know you're busy.
I know that you have all ofthese plates in the air right,
all of these balls that you'rejuggling, and it can be hard to
(20:53):
prioritize, but having clarityaround your priorities is really
going to be the game changerwhen it comes to managing your
energy in your business.
So hope this was helpful.
I would love for you to takethis information.
Go out there, create your dayin the best way possible.
Create the business that youwant to have, not the business
(21:15):
that controls your life.
Until next week, go out there,take care of each other, take
care of yourselves, and I willsee you next time on the Create
your Day podcast.
Have a great week everybody.
Hey everyone, welcome back to the Create your Day
podcast.
My name is Jen Cody, I am yourhost and your business
strategist bestie.
So I want to talk to you guystoday about something that
happens to me or was happeningto me, I should say, really,
really often and it's the 3 pmcrash.
(00:37):
For me it's 3 pm, and I knowthat's kind of cliche, right.
We talk about, like, people whoget to three o'clock in the
afternoon and they just need alittle pick me up, and so I
didn't really think there wasanything wrong with the fact
that I would get sluggish aroundthat time of day, and I'm
pretty sure you know what I'mtalking about, even if for you
it's not 3 pm.
Maybe it's happening earlier inthe day or later in the day.
(00:59):
But we start our day withreally good intentions, right,
our morning routine down pat,we're focused, we're productive,
we're powering through morningtasks, feeling like we're
crushing it.
And then for me I would get toabout 3 o'clock sometimes
earlier, actually, like around 2o'clock, and I would feel like
I just hit this brick wall.
(01:21):
My brain shuts off.
If there was something thatseemed urgent earlier in the day
, it does not seem urgentanymore.
It doesn't even seem manageable.
It's like impossible for me tofocus on, and I would find
myself staring at my computer,going from tab to tab to tab,
trying to find, like, what'sgoing to spark my energy.
(01:41):
Maybe I would take a socialmedia break, thinking it's only
going to be for a minute, andthen we all know how that goes.
You know, 30 minutes later I'mlooking down some rabbit hole on
Instagram.
And my solution for this was todo a few different things.
Maybe I would make some coffee,maybe I would have a snack,
like a yogurt, something likethat.
(02:01):
Maybe I would take the dog fora walk.
I would do something to kind ofremove myself from what I was
doing and then come back to it,thinking that this was magically
going to make me feel focusedagain.
And then I realized, through aconversation with a really,
really good colleague of mine,that I didn't think this was
(02:23):
about energy anymore.
Colleague of mine that I didn'tthink this was about energy
anymore, and so let me tell youthe story.
So I was talking with one of myreally good clients and really
good friend also.
She owns a restaurant, and inmy conversations with her I
realized that she was having thesame thing like just pumping
herself full of coffee everysingle day to try and get
(02:45):
through the day, and I wasalways kind of referring to this
as this 3 pm slump, like that'sjust what happens With her.
It would be a little bit laterin the day because her days were
much longer right in therestaurant business.
She's there until 10 o'clock atnight.
So this would happen like 6o'clock 7 o'clock.
She's in this slump and feelinglike I just need the day to be
(03:06):
over.
And it wasn't until we startedworking on what her day actually
looked like that we realizedwhat the issue was.
And she was frustrated, right,because she's telling me Jen,
I'm getting all the sleep that Ineed, I eat well, I take care
of myself, I exercise.
Why am I not able to powerthrough this?
So I started asking her abouthow she was spending her morning
(03:32):
and there were a lot ofdecisions that were happening in
her day and every singledecision that she was making,
from the time she woke up untilthis slump, was really important
.
Right, there were to her.
At that moment she was thinkingabout, like, what do I wear to
work today?
What am I going to have forbreakfast?
(03:53):
What?
Let me sit down and answer someemails, let me pay some bills,
let me figure out whether or notI have calls that I have to
reschedule this morning.
What's the next project I wantto do?
What do I want to get donebefore I get to the restaurant?
And we realized as we startedtalking more about this that all
(04:15):
of her decision making that washappening before she got to
work was on things that were notmoving the needle forward for
her at work or at the restaurant.
So she wasn't reallyexperiencing an energy crash.
In my opinion, it was a littlebit more like decision fatigue.
And this happens a lot of thetime in business because our
(04:38):
brain really does have a finiteamount of decision-making
capacity each day.
So if you're like most peopleout there running a business,
you're burning through thatcapacity before you even think
about working on what's reallyimportant.
So right now, if you'relistening, think about your
typical morning.
When you wake up, youimmediately start making
(05:00):
decisions.
Right?
What time are you going to getup in the morning?
Setting the alarm the nightbefore?
Decisions right.
What time are you going to getup in the morning?
Setting the alarm the nightbefore?
We all hit snooze once in awhile, right.
So how do we backtrack Like?
That takes some decision making.
What are we going to wear?
What are we going to have forbreakfast?
Then we check our phone.
Right, some of us out therewe're checking our phone before
we even get out of bed.
That's our first decisionmistake right there.
(05:21):
Suddenly, we are hit with thisflood of micro decisions.
And these micro decisions we'vetalked about this they are
other people's problems, notours.
Which email are we going toread first?
Are we going to respond now?
Are we going to respond later?
Do I want to check out socialmedia right now?
If I do, am I going to sit hereand engage on Instagram and
(05:44):
Facebook and LinkedIn before myfeet even hit the floor?
So now you get up, you do youknow shower, get ready for bed,
get ready for your day, startyou know driving to the office
or going to the restaurant orsitting at your desk, whatever.
That is more decisions to bemade.
Which projects are we going totackle first?
(06:05):
Am I going to take thisimpromptu call from a client?
How am I going to handle thisquestion from a team member?
How many of you walk throughthe door if you walk through the
door to a team and youimmediately are hit with a bunch
of other decisions that havenothing to do with what you had
planned that day.
So by lunchtime yourdecision-making muscle is really
(06:26):
tired, but you don't reallynotice because you're still
running on that momentum.
You have that morning momentum,your caffeine, whatever that
looks like, and then the slumphits.
Like I said, for me two, threeo'clock, for my clients it's six
o'clock at night.
Your brain says I'm done, I'mthrowing in the towel, and
(06:46):
sometimes it's really not thatyou're physically tired, you're
not looking to go to bed, you'renot looking to take a nap, it's
just that your decision-makingcapacity is really, really
tapped out.
So all of a sudden, the projectthat you're starting at three
o'clock in the afternoon thatshould take 45 minutes an hour,
now it's taking two hours, threehours.
You're scrolling on your phoneinstead of making progress on
(07:09):
your goals.
This is why even simple, simpletasks feel really overwhelming
in the afternoon, because ourbrains are desperately trying to
avoid making any more decisions.
So what does it do?
It defaults to the path ofleast resistance, which for us
in this digital age, usuallymeans mindless scrolling or busy
(07:32):
work that feels productive andthat does not actually move our
business forward.
So I learned this lesson, like Isaid, through these
conversations with my client,and then I didn't realize how
much it applied to me until Iwas in the middle of doing
something new in my business,trying to launch my new program,
(07:52):
and every afternoon I would hitthis wall where I just could
not think strategically anymore,find myself like jumping from
going through the landing pageand creating the course outline,
and I would find myself jumpingfrom there to oh you know what?
I think I want to reorganizeall the folders in my Google
(08:14):
Drive, or now seems like areally good time to find some
new images for my website, ormaybe I should check out a new
photographer to see if I shouldschedule a photo shoot for
myself.
Anything that felt like workbut didn't actually require
decision making.
So I got really frustrated andI kept thinking to myself like
what the heck is going on.
(08:34):
You, jen, you are a businessstrategist, you are supposed to
be able to power through this.
And then I thought about myclient in the restaurant and I
was like, oh, wait a minute, shewas supposed to be able to
power through this also.
So I realized it really wasdecision fatigue that was
affecting her and decisionfatigue that was affecting me,
(08:56):
and everything really clicked.
I wasn't lazy, I wasn'tunfocused, I wasn't approaching
my day backwards.
I was just using all of my bestdecision-making energy on
choices that I would call lowstakes.
Decision-making energy onchoices that I would call low
stakes, like who cares what I'meating for breakfast and you
know, like all of these thingsin the morning, they aren't low
(09:18):
stakes choices, and I'm leavingall of my most important work
for when my brain was alreadyexhausted.
And it's kind of like.
I don't know if anybody elseout there does this, but
sometimes if there's something Iwant to do, like read a book
for pleasure or watch a guiltypleasure reality TV show, I will
(09:39):
have this thing in my brainwhere I need to check off all of
these boxes before I givemyself permission to actually go
enjoy the thing.
I do the same thing.
I didn't realize it, but Iactually do the same thing in my
work.
If there's something reallyimportant, I get excited by my
work, right?
So if I'm going to be filmingnew course material or something
(10:01):
like that, I look forward to it.
I get excited by it and I putit on my calendar and I will
look at it and I'm like, okay,calendar, and I will look at it
and I'm like, okay, before I dothat, I need to check off boxes
one through 10.
And that is what was actuallyworking against me is that box
one through 10 was taking up allof my decision-making and then,
when it came to the thing Ireally wanted to do, I didn't
(10:23):
have the energy in mydecision-making to do it.
Kind of like if you think aboutthe watching a TV show or
reading a book checking off allthe things youmaking to do it.
Kind of like if you think aboutthe watching a TV show or
reading a book checking off allthe things you want to do around
your house before you giveyourself permission, then you
sit down to watch the show andwhat happens?
You fall asleep because youjust can't fit any more things
into your day.
So what I did was completelyrestructured my day, which,
(10:47):
hello, create your day podcast.
That's why we're here.
So I want to share this with youbecause this was a game changer
.
So first, I really did try toautomate or pre-decide
everything I could.
So this is things like thealarm.
I wasn't thinking every night,what am I going to do tomorrow?
Just have an alarm that's setfor every day.
Do you have days where maybeyou're going to the gym so you
(11:09):
have to get up an hour earlier?
On those days, just have thealarm set and get up and use
that time for yourself, right?
So my morning routine becametotally automatic.
Maybe at one point I was makingwhat is it overnight oats for
breakfast in the morning, sotook that off my plate.
So same breakfast every day,same workout time, same outfit
(11:30):
formula, right?
Like what am I wearing?
Yes, I basically wear the sameshit every day, I feel like.
So second, I started timeblocking the high stakes
decisions.
So if you have ever watched mytime management course, we talk
a little bit about this Lookingat your week and figuring out
(11:52):
where are the really importantthings, where should they live
on my calendar before I put inany of that other stuff.
So my high stake decisionswould go on my peak decision
making hours.
I'm a morning person.
I'm sure some of you out thereare like Jen.
I make my best decisions at 11o'clock with three cups of
(12:13):
coffee to go, and I'm up till 2am.
Great, that's not me.
I'm a morning person.
So for me I wanna focus onthose things between like 8 am
and 11 am.
That's when I wanna make all mystrategic business decisions,
plan all of my content.
Anything that really requiresmy mental energy happens best
(12:34):
during those hours.
Then I'll create what I call adecision buffer and these are
responses to common situationsso that I don't have to decide
it in the moment.
So I have a standard responsefor networking invitations.
I get a lot of them.
I get a lot of emails asking meto go to different events.
(12:55):
I have a standard response andit just buys me time and then I
can think about it, but it's notgoing to pull me away in the
moment.
I have a process for handlingnew client requests and I'm
starting not there yet, but I'mstarting to develop this filter,
I guess you would say, which islike predetermined criteria for
(13:19):
saying yes or no to anopportunity, so that I'm not
just a yes person all the time.
So the results of all this thepurpose is that my slump while
it doesn't necessarily disappearcompletely, because I'm not
stopping working at 11 o'clockin the morning, but it becomes
more manageable and I'm notrelying on that time period for
(13:40):
making decisions that are superduper important anymore.
So there is a deeper lesson here, right, which to me, is where
it gets interesting, becausethis slump is not just about
decision fatigue.
That decision fatigue is asymptom.
And what is it a symptom of?
It's a symptom of not havingclarity around your priorities.
(14:02):
So when you know exactly whatyou're supposed to be working on
and why it has the prioritythat it has, you don't waste
mental energy debating withyourself over what you're
supposed to do next.
When you have clear criteriafor making decisions, which is
that filter I'm creating formyself, I'm not going to exhaust
(14:23):
myself anymore weighing outevery option.
It's easy.
It's a yes or a no.
It either checks the boxes orit doesn't.
And this is where a lot ofbusiness owners get it wrong.
They think that the solution tothat decision fatigue or the
afternoon fatigue is better timemanagement or more energy right
, more coffee.
But actually it's betterdecision management, not time
(14:47):
management.
So let's talk about whathappened with my client that I
was telling you about at therestaurant.
When she started implementingthis, she spent her Sunday
evening doing the Monday hourone.
That's what my time managementcourse is based on Monday hour
(15:07):
one.
And she did it on her Sunday,and I tell everybody when they
decide to take it on for thefirst time.
Do it when it's best for you.
Maybe Saturday mornings areyour best time to book out your
next week.
But this is when I want you todo what you would call, maybe,
your decision map.
I want you to pre-decide whenyou're going to check your email
(15:28):
.
How are you going to prioritizeclient work?
What is your standard responsegoing to be to all of the things
you can anticipate happening?
And this is what my client did.
She sat down, looked at hercalendar and she was like you
know what this week?
I know that some of mydistributors are going to be
asking me about my next menuitems, so I'm going to just go
(15:51):
ahead, create a standardresponse that's going to buy me
some time for that and get itset to go.
And the first week that she didthis, she definitely felt a
little bit better Not 100%better.
It wasn't like revolutionary,but it was noticeable.
But after about three weeks shestarted telling me I really
feel more focused.
I get to that point in the dayand I'm not worried about what's
(16:11):
going to happen next, because Itook care of it on Sunday.
So the real breakthroughactually came when she realized
wait a minute.
I'm not just more focused inthat part of the day, I'm
actually more focused all daybecause I'm not second guessing
myself.
That worry kept causing me tosecond guess what should I be
(16:33):
doing right now and am I doingwhat I'm supposed to be doing?
Well, if you plan it all out onSaturday morning or Sunday
night or Monday morning, youdon't have to second guess
yourself.
That's where the real magiccomes in.
You can reduce your decisionfatigue and it doesn't just fix
that slump.
You're actually improving yourentire day because you're not
(16:54):
constantly burning mental energyon things that don't matter.
So, as always, I want to reallytalk about how we can implement
this.
Let's get practical and notjust talk about it.
So we can start by kind oflooking at your decisions,
notice how many decisions you'remaking.
Don't try to change anythingyet, but just become aware.
(17:17):
I promise you're going to beshocked by the number.
I want you to just Maybe writedown notes app in your phone
notebook, whatever you're usingto do this kind of work and
write down the decisions thatyou're making.
Really write down the decisionsthat you're making, become
aware of them and then identifywhat are the decisions that are
(17:37):
draining you.
These are probably recurringthings that don't really matter,
but they're eating up yourmental energy.
Things like okay, if you don'tlike creating content which as
business owners now we have tocreate so much freaking content
right, if you don't like doingthat, that's probably draining
to you, so that would be adecision drainer.
(17:58):
So things like creating content, things like how to respond to
emails or fitting breaks intoyour day, then I want you to
create some systems.
These systems are going toeliminate or pre-decide those
drains.
So think about what decisionscan you batch together?
Can you create templates forcommon things?
(18:20):
Can you establish routines,non-negotiable routines, because
, guess what?
We can all establish routines.
It doesn't matter how manyroutines we have if we're not
actually following them.
So the routines have to benon-negotiable and that is how
we're going to decide what doesnot deserve our creative energy.
(18:41):
Then I want you to protect yourpeak decision-making hours,
identify what works well for you.
For a lot of people, it is thefirst two to three hours of
their workday.
You want to guard that timefiercely.
We don't want to let any ofthose drainers come into those
(19:04):
hours of your day.
So the system that you find hasto work with that result in
mind.
I always say we start with theend in mind.
What's the result that we want?
The result that we want is weget a good two, three, four hour
block of our workday where wecould do the work that matters
most and not be drained bydecision fatigue.
(19:25):
So what system will work foryou that's going to clear that
time?
Again, the system that I useand that I teach is to find time
on the weekend or first thingMonday morning to plot things on
your calendar so that you cankeep this time clear.
What I want you to remember isthat having this fatigue, having
(19:48):
this slump in your day, doesn'tmean there's something wrong
with you.
It's not a sign that you needmore willpower.
It's really feedback from yourbody, feedback from your brain,
that you're not being strategicabout how you're using your
energy.
And there are people that yousee, I'm sure that you think
they seem to have endless focus.
They seem to have endlessenergy.
And there are people that yousee, I'm sure that you think
they seem to have endless focus,they seem to have endless
(20:10):
energy.
They're like superhuman.
Right, they're not reallysuperhuman and they really don't
have endless focus.
They definitely do not haveendless energy, but they are
better at managing theirdecisions.
This afternoon, crash, do youhear my dog playing with her toy
in the background?
I apologize.
This afternoon, crash, it istrying to tell you something,
(20:32):
but the question is are youlistening to what your brain and
your body is telling you?
Listening and answering thatcall are what's going to make
the difference.
I know you're busy.
I know that you have all ofthese plates in the air right,
all of these balls that you'rejuggling, and it can be hard to
(20:53):
prioritize, but having clarityaround your priorities is really
going to be the game changerwhen it comes to managing your
energy in your business.
So hope this was helpful.
I would love for you to takethis information.
Go out there, create your dayin the best way possible.
Create the business that youwant to have, not the business
(21:15):
that controls your life.
Until next week, go out there,take care of each other, take
care of yourselves, and I willsee you next time on the Create
your Day podcast.
Have a great week everybody.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.