How to Make Better Decisions (And Stress Less About Them)

Why does deciding what’s for dinner every night feel way harder than making major decisions at work? Here's why decision-making can feel so overwhelming—and what actually helps.

You'll learn the psychology behind choice overload, decision fatigue, and regret aversion, and how too many options, depleted mental energy, and fear of future regret can lead to avoidance, default choices, or endless second-guessing.

Amy and Margaret share practical tools for simplifying decisions, including narrowing options, offloading choices, and applying frameworks like the Eisenhower Matrix.

This episode offers reassurance that decision stress is normal—and actionable ways to reduce it, save your cognitive energy for what matters most, and move forward with more confidence and less regret.

Here are links to some of the resources mentioned in the episode:

• Science of People: “Choice Paralysis: 8 Techniques to Make Better Decisions”

• Marlynn Wei, M.D., J.D. for Psychology Today: “How High Performers Overcome Decision Fatigue”

• The Decision Lab: “Regret Aversion”

• The Decision Lab: “Choice Overload Bias”

• Alexander Chernev, Ulf Böckenholt & Joseph Goodman for Journal of Consumer Psychology: "Choice overload: A conceptual review and meta‐analysis"

• Huiqiao Jia, Chiuhsiang Joe Lin & Eric Min-yang Wang for Scientific Reports: “Effects of Mental Fatigue on Risk Preference and Feedback Processing in Risk Decision-Making”

What Fresh Hell is co-hosted by Amy Wilson and Margaret Ables.

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