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Hey {{ first name | there }}! Welcome back to The Flow by Flocus. If you’re new around here, welcome! 👋 You can catch up on our previous editions right here.
This week: We’re digging into decision debt, or the quiet drain on your energy from those small decisions you keep putting off.
🎈 What’s Decision Debt?
Ever put off a choice or task you’ve been dreading for ages — only to find it was way easier and quicker than you thought? (Yeah, us too!)
The longer you put off a decision, the more likely you are to experience decision debt: that constant, low-grade drain on your mental and physical energy.
The more “touchpoints” you have with decisions like these, the more intense the drain can be — let’s look at a real example to explore why.
🚰 How decision debt shows up IRL
Let’s say your kitchen faucet has a small leak. You keep meaning to get it fixed, but you’re already so swamped with school, work, and home stuff.
Since you spend a lot of time in the kitchen, you see and hear the leak often. And each time, you think, “Dang, I need to get that fixed. I’ll do it this weekend, when things are calmer.”
The weekend finally comes, but you’re so tired from the week before that you just veg out. Then another weekend passes, then another…
You know it’ll only take you 5 minutes to schedule an appointment with a plumber. Maybe 1 minute to search up a DIY video, plus an afternoon to get the materials and fix the leak.
So why do you freeze up and put it off instead?
🛣️ It’s not because you’re lazy. When you have multiple options, each with different flavors of friction attached, it can be hard to know how to move forward.
🙇♂️ On top of the recurring thoughts and half-hearted attempts at scheduling a fix, you might also feel overstimulated by the sound, or unable to access professional plumbing services.
These “extras” can make the debt worse and prolong your freeze response. But before we look at how to fix it, let’s explore the kinds of decisions it most commonly affects.
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Now, back to decision debt!
🫧 Which Decisions Are at Risk of Debt?
🪜 Complex, multi-step actions: Filling out and submitting your income tax forms may not take a long time. But you gotta do a bunch more complicated things before you can even start. Gathering bank statements, sorting receipts and expenses, and meeting with your accountant all take time (and can be really stressful).
😰 Things that we dread or find triggering: Yes, sometimes, “I just don’t want to do it” is a real reason for decision debt. But it’s rarely a matter of pure laziness. Dig a little deeper, and you’ll likely find some valid emotions and stressors at the root of any resistance you feel.
🚰 Stuff that’s half-fixed, half-done, or “not bad enough yet”: Going back to our leaky faucet example from earlier, if the leak isn’t too bad and the sink still works fine, you’re more likely to put off fixing it. Leave it long enough, though, and it could develop into a much bigger problem that dramatically increases the debt.
😴 Anything that’s not urgent, important, or impactful: Our lives are full of things pulling at our time and attention. And if something’s just not that important, we’re more likely to put it on the backburner while we work on more impactful things.
Now that you know where it’s most likely to show up, how do you get back in the black? Read on for a breakdown!
🧗♂️ How to Get Out of Decision “Debt”
Based on the types of decisions we covered above.
🪜 For complex / multi-step actions
We talked about this in our last newsletter, but some of those “single” decisions are actually entire projects involving multiple decisions.
Generally, anything with several steps counts as a project. So treat it like one. Make a list of the steps involved, as well as the resources, people, and tools you need to get it done.
Once you’ve got your lists, do something right now (if you’re able) to reduce the debt. Don’t overextend yourself; remember, all progress counts.
😰 For things you dread or find emotionally tricky
Ask yourself: What about this decision is causing difficult emotions for me? And what small steps can I take to resolve and move through them?
Connect with those emotions, and gently explore them. You might consider events from your past that are contributing, or how current blockers are making you feel dysregulated.
As always, be gentle with yourself. You can set down stressors and triggers at any time, for any reason. Clarity helps a lot, but it’s okay to take a break or come back to process things later.
🚰 For stuff that’s half-done / “not bad enough yet”
If you only have energy for just 1 thing: Pick something that you can realistically do without a ton of extra input. Examples: Clean that scuff mark on the floor that’s been bothering you; take out the recycling that’s filling up but not quite overflowing
If you want to tackle a bunch of half-dones in one block / day: Make a list of what you want to achieve. Try to balance easy and quick tasks with the harder stuff that involves outside help. Then, get to work and do as much as you can with the time you have. At the end, you’ll have made more progress than you would have otherwise, so take time to celebrate!
😴 For the less impactful stuff
Reorganizing your messy closet or deleting old files from your work laptop will likely never be at the top of your priorities list.
But these things still need to get done “at some point”, if we want to move through our days comfortably.
First, determine how much impact the “less” impactful stuff will actually have on your days if it’s fixed or sorted. Going back to our examples from above, a clean, organized closet means more time saved in the mornings getting ready, and a decluttered work laptop means more storage space and less lag.
Of course, you won’t be able to prioritize these kinds of tasks over truly urgent things. Just work on them little by little, as and when you have the time. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.
🪅 Flocus Picks
A curated list of things worth sharing.
The Later Trap (The Flow Archives) — All those decisions you’re planning to “do later” can quickly pile up. How to break free of the “later trap” and lighten the load, one task at a time
Freeze Response 101 (The Flow Archives) — If you tend to freeze up when it comes to decisions big or small, this one’s for you
japanese chillhop mix (Playlist) — 3 hours of classic lofi tunes, perfect for those deep work sessions
✨ Flocus: Your Personal Productivity Dashboard
Decision debt builds when everything lives in your head instead of somewhere you can see it. Flocus keeps your tasks visible and contained, so the small stuff stops circling and starts getting done.
🗳️ POLL: What's been sitting on your list the longest?
Decision debt racks up quickly, making that “low-grade” stress an awful lot more intense. Luckily, there are some ways you can tackle it, depending on the type of decision you need to make and the options available to you.
What’d you think of this one? We’re hoping it landed in your inbox right when you needed it!
Until next Sunday,
Flocus Team
