Latest news with #decisionfatigue
Forbes
23-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
How Clutter Causes Overspending And What To Do About It
Clutter leads to overspending. You're not overspending because of your budget, you're overspending because of your clutter. Look around, all the stuff used to be money. Clutter isn't just a home organization problem; it is a financial issue that overwhelms families trying to stick to a budget. Disorganization leads to overspending. Buying a duplicate with 2-day shipping is easier when you can't find something, but it perpetuates the problem. Decision fatigue is real, and a cluttered home means spending more money on dining out, takeout, and convenience purchases. Bottom line, clutter is the source of overspending. You'll never need to organize something you did not buy. Removing things from your home and reducing what comes in work together to create more organization and save money. Decluttering feels lighter and freer. It shifts your spending habits to not just buying less but a desire to own less too. Here are three habits that will have an immediate impact on your budget and organize your home at the same time. Adopt a 'use what you have' mentality. This is especially helpful with consumable items. Cook only from your existing inventory. Look up ingredient substitutions, you will find one. Observe how in as little as a week, the fridge, freezer, and pantry become emptier and easier to organize by using up inventory. And just when you think there are no more meals in the house, try again. Get creative and you'll find another one. If you find yourself buying a specific item often or shopping in a certain store or website, resolve to not buy for at least six months. Use your bank's online tools to review your purchases and see the potential savings by category and by store. Delete shopping apps from your phone. Disconnect your credit card from websites. And tell a friend who can be your accountability partner when you're tempted to shop. Let's normalize believing we do not have to own everything, and it does not have to be new to us. The next time you consider buying, ask yourself the following questions. Let buying be your last resort. Gaining control of your home and your budget is freeing. It eliminates the guilt you feel about rebuying things you know you already own. It's easy to feel embarrassed and even ashamed about your financial situation and the state of your home. But you can gain confidence in how you spend and save your money by adopting these habits. Not to mention, the organized and peaceful home it creates. Remember, when you reduce the volume, spaces have a way of organizing themselves. Your home is living space, not storage space. View it as a representation of your financial decisions. Not just overspending, but what you can do differently going forward to own less and live more.
Forbes
22-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
The ‘Buy Now, Pay Later' Trap, Explained By A Psychologist
Decision fatigue can make you impulsive. "Buy Now, Pay Later" can make you broke. Here's the ... More psychology behind the most seductive shopping trap. Long before Klarna, Zilch and Afterpay attracted consumers with their 'Buy Now, Pay Later,' schemes, department-store chains like Kmart had their own version of delayed gratification. For a small fee, customers could reserve an item, make payments over time and only take it home once it was fully paid off. But it required patience. Then came credit cards, which flipped the model: take it now, pay later. But this was regulated, and not everyone had access to a credit card by default. Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) schemes are not regulated and are a hybrid of both. They preserve the illusion of financial caution, like layaways once did, while delivering the joy of instant ownership. Because there's no need for a credit score, no official approval process and no institutional guardrails, even those still navigating early financial independence are being nudged into debt with a single tap. And if that wasn't enough, sellers are using one of the oldest psychological tricks in the book to ensure you default to BNPL: They're counting on you being too cognitively overloaded to think. There's a reason the phrase 'no-brainer' cuts both ways in this case. On the one hand, BNPL offers are, in theory, smart financial tools. Debt isn't inherently a bad thing. When used well, it can free up liquidity, which allows you to invest your money elsewhere while paying off a purchase in manageable chunks. In that sense, spreading out payments might feel like a savvy move. Most houses are bought on credit, because debt can be a strategic lever when matched with stable income and long-term planning. But a house appreciates. When we look at what's actually being financed, it becomes clear that the pattern is more impulsive, more reactive and far less considered. Nearly half of all BNPL purchases are clothing and fashion, according to data from Numerator. The average user decides to go the BNPL route because they can't afford the item outright. And the platforms know this. By the time most shoppers arrive at the checkout screen, they've already made dozens of micro-decisions — what brand, what size, what color, which seller and what shipping option. The sheer volume of information processed along the way quietly wears the brain down. It's called cognitive load, and psychological research shows that it drains your decision-making energy. A 2024 conference paper that focused specifically on this type of overload found that too much information on a page affects visual attention and decision quality. In this state, guiding the shopper toward a default path, like a Buy Now, Pay Later option highlighted by the seller, becomes easy and effective. BNPL blurs the line between affordability and accessibility. The moment a consumer can't pay on time, late fees stack up. And in most cases, BNPL platforms don't report timely payments to credit bureaus, meaning you don't build credit — but if your debt gets sent to collections, your score can tank. What starts as a convenience can quietly morph into a liability. A LendingTree survey found that 41% of BNPL users reported paying late in the past year, up from 34% the year before. Many of them weren't behind by more than a week — but repeat use and overlapping loans compound risk. Nearly a quarter of users said they'd had three or more BNPL loans active at once. Even more concerning is the shift in what's being financed. One in four BNPL users now say they've used it to buy groceries. And partnership between platforms — like Klarna and DoorDash, for instance — is making it easier to finance takeout. Debt is no longer tied to long-term assets or life upgrades. It's being used to delay the pain of day-to-day spending — a strategy that may feel necessary now but often backfires later. Most people think dopamine is the brain's pleasure chemical, but that's an oversimplification. Neuroscientists have long known that dopamine is more tied to anticipation than satisfaction. The surge hits when the possibility of reward seems real. That's why window shopping feels so good. That's also why scrolling through endless product pages late at night feels oddly energizing. Buy Now, Pay Later lowers the barrier between that dopamine spike and action. You don't need to earn the purchase, budget for it or sit with the desire. You just click 'Pay Later,' and the reward loop closes — fast. So, if you're trying to regain control, start by breaking that loop. Recognize that the emotional high is frontloaded, not backloaded. Wait 24 to 48 hours before buying anything that triggers a surge of want. You'll be surprised how often the urge fades, once dopamine exits the scene. And if you are tempted by the option to finance takeout, ask yourself if you'd still like to be paying for a burrito and a side of chips you had three weeks ago. Are you falling for the 'Buy Now, Pay Later' trap? Take the Financial Management Behavior Scale to find out if your financial management needs work.
Forbes
17-05-2025
- Health
- Forbes
Indecisive? 3 Science-Backed Steps To Make Good Choices FAST
Why are so many of us indecisive and what are the three steps for making good choices FAST? Learn ... More the answers to these questions and more. On average the adult human mind makes 33,000 to 35,000 total decisions each day, according to various sources. Many of these decisions are when the mind is on autopilot based on information it has stored about what works and what doesn't. But there's a point at which your mind on autopilot no longer works because the fried brain—unable to make more than 35,000 individual decisions—short circuits, decision-making goes offline and you are indecisive. When you make decisions after working days on end, your fatigued brain makes choices different from the ones you'd make after your brain has a rest period. Why? Scientists have discovered a phenomenon known as decision fatigue—which is what happens when your brain is worn out and depleted of mental energy. Decision fatigue impairs mental clarity and is why many wage earners have little mental energy left over for activities outside of work. After hours of nonstop working, your brain can suffer from cognitive overload, compassion fatigue and burnout. The longer you work and the more choices you make in those extended work hours, the more difficult it is for your strained mind to make sound decisions. And the harder it is to make choices like what to wear, where to eat, how much to spend or how to prioritize work projects. Mind fatigue can lead to shortcuts such as not thoroughly proofing an important email or opting out of decision-making with your team. And it can cause you to be short with colleagues, eat junk food instead of healthy meals and forego exercise. And in some cases even life-or-death issues such as permitting your newly-licensed teenager to drive the car on an icy road at night. Some of us have to make so many decisions in the workday that after a while we suffer from decision fatigue, but some experts assert that indecisiveness can be traced to childhood. "Being indecisive when it comes to major life and career choices can lead to avoidance, and that's when you get into trouble," says clinical psychologist Dr. Helen McKibben, author of Drop: Making Great Decisions. According to McKibben, the stage is set for our decisive--or indecisive--nature in the first five years of brain development. "When a child expresses a feeling, reads a situation a certain way or shares an idea of something they would like to do, how their parent or caretaker responds to them over time creates a neuron track in the brain that follows them into adulthood. When a child's feelings and ideas are supported and reinforced, the neuron track leads to trusting their instincts, feelings and choices throughout life. McKibben cautions that if they're dismissed, minimized or controlled, the child walks away second-guessing themselves. 'That neuron track creates a habit of looking to others for validation and doing what they say instead of trusting themselves,' she explains. "An example of some things not to say in response to a child would be "'Oh, you don't feel that way,' or 'If you do it my way, it will be better.'' If someone else was making choices for you, like 'helicoptor parents' do, always saying you're wrong or helps you do everything as a child, she points out that you may be in the habit of reading others for their reactions or thoughts. 'That neuron track leads you straight to indecisiveness. The good news is that you can rewire that track to erase self-doubt and trust your instincts.' That's where the "Drop" technique comes in to create a new neuron configuration on the old neuron track, McKibben says, adding that the key is to listen to the brain the way it was designed to work, which uses memory recall when making decisions. When faced with a situation or person, the brain's job is to configure how you feel in the moment and automatically retrieves memories of every time you felt that way. This memory recall then prompts you with words and ideas to help you make a choice in your best interest. 'You become decisive once you trust what your brain puts together for you,' McKibben insists. 'If people don't listen to those instincts, they are up in their heads trying to decide themselves. That's when they are reading other people for guidance. They are indecisive and don't present confidently.' She asks if you've ever walked away from a situation thinking, 'Why didn't I listen to myself? I KNEW this was going to happen?' When presented with a choice, she says your brain automatically compiled words and ideas for you to use in making that choice, but you didn't trust yourself enough. I was curious about how long it takes to become more confident in our decisions. McKibben explained by email that using the "Drop" technique over time will help us replace the old neuron track of self-doubt with the new neuron track of confidence. 'It takes just weeks of practice to reinforce the new configuration on an old neuron track,' she assures us. 'It's like a golfer who gets a new coach that changes their swing. They don't just forget the old swing, they practice and practice until the new swing becomes natural and the old swing is gone.' McKibben shares her proven three-step method to make better decisions by engaging your brain the way it's naturally designed to work: Stop, Drop and Listen. McKibben suggests that the antidote to being indecisive is not to second-guess what you hear. This takes practice, especially if you grew up in an environment where someone was making choices for you, always said you were wrong or helped you do everything. Your brain adapts to your words or ideas which will replace the tendency to look to others for guidance and second guessing yourself," McKibben concludes.
Medscape
09-05-2025
- Health
- Medscape
Is Decision Fatigue Sabotaging Your Clinical Choices?
The decision-making process is a fundamental activity in the medical field. It translates into diagnosis, treatment selection, examination choices, provision of relevant information, follow-up scheduling, or the decision not to intervene. In recent years, decision-making processes in medicine have faced increasing pressure to comply with regulatory standards such as evidence-based medicine, patient-centered care, and patient safety. This context has made medical decision-making cognitively more intense, with internists making an average of 15.7 decisionsduring each patient visit. Consequently, for physicians operating in high-complexity clinical settings with heavy workloads and significant cognitive demands, the quality of their decisions may be compromised owing to fatigue resulting from repeated decision-making processes. Decision fatigue (DF) refers to the concept that making decisions is mentally taxing and impairs the quality of subsequent decisions. It is hypothesized that humans have a finite cognitive reserve for decision-making, and as this reserve depletes, executive function and self-control diminish, ultimately affecting the decisions that follow. Clinical Implications DF is of particular concern in medicine because of the critical nature of the decisions made by physicians and the potential consequences of suboptimal decision-making. In clinical practice, decision fatigue has been linked to various outcomes related to sequential decision-making processes, often concerning the timing or order of appointments. Notable examples include increased rates of antibiotic prescriptions later in the day, more conservative surgical recommendations with increased case prescriptions just before lunch, and a higher likelihood of physicians prescribing painkillers, such as opioids, later in the workday. However, most studies available to date have utilized retrospective observational designs, lacking preregistration or external validation. Additionally, the definitions of DF are often vague or inconsistent, resulting in weak cumulative evidence despite numerous reports on its effects. Research Insights A systematic review and meta-synthesis summarized the existing literature on DF in medicine, focusing on its definitions, determinants, and implications for clinical practice while attempting to address some unresolved questions. DF has been broadly defined as a reduced capacity to make decisions and regulate behavior following repetitive decision-making tasks. Although qualitative studies have not directly investigated DF, many have indirectly explored its impact on physician performance or patient outcomes. DF has been described as a consequence of cognitive overload, time pressure, acts of omission, and interprofessional disagreements. No qualitative study has analyzed DF by asking participants to define it or by observing its cognitive, emotional, or behavioral components. Nonempirical articles have examined the concept of DF more directly than empirical studies, describing its possible determinants and associated outcomes. These studies have shown that DF includes ego depletion, physical fatigue, burnout, and repeated or difficult decision-making. Other contributing factors include workload, dysfunctional work environment; implementation of new procedures; and pressure from colleagues, patients, and their families. Risk and Protective Factors At the individual level, risk factors include ego depletion or willpower exhaustion, where repeated DF depletes mental resources; self-perceived medical errors, which can increase stress and anxiety; uncertainty and inherent risks in medical practice; ethical challenges requiring careful reflection; and emotional challenges such as dealing with patient suffering or death. Female sex and residency status were notable sociodemographic risk factors. At the contextual level, the healthcare environment plays a crucial role, with high patient volumes, time pressure, inadequate support, and organizational culture exacerbating the pressure on healthcare professionals, making them more prone to DF. Protective factors against DF include various individual, sociodemographic, and contextual elements. At the individual level, effective communication skills, effective coping strategies, empathy and compassion, trust in one's instincts, motivation, a strong professional identity, the ability to seek advice, self-control and awareness in DF, high self-esteem, and tolerance for ambiguity contribute to greater resilience. At the sociodemographic level, being male, maintaining good mental health, a good quality of life, and good sleep quality were protective factors. At the system level, communication and ethics training, collaborative work environments, decision-making support tools, autonomy, professional experience, and a safe work culture provided resilience against DF. Key Considerations Clinical DF is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon with significant implications for clinical practice and patient outcomes. No current study has comprehensively defined clinical DF within a theoretical framework supporting hypotheses or research questions or provided a definition that could be used systematically. The analysis of risk and protective factors for clinical DF has identified contextual and individual factors with interrelated psychological dimensions. Given the results of this review, it is plausible to assert that clinical DF is a multifaceted cognitive and motivational process that influences a physician's decision-making capacity, driven by contextual and individual factors. These, in turn, are closely linked to psychological distress and an increased risk for errors in healthcare.
