The term decision fatigue sounds like jargon invented by an overpaid consultant at McKinsey. Though it might sound like bullshit, and smell like bullshit, it’s no bullshit. I remember first reading about the concept in the New York Times a couple of years ago and watching it gain steam after the Obama profile in Vanity Fair in 2012. From the article:

“You’ll see I wear only gray or blue suits,” [the President] said. “I’m trying to pare down decisions. I don’t want to make decisions about what I’m eating or wearing. Because I have too many other decisions to make.” He mentioned research that shows the simple act of making decisions degrades one’s ability to make further decisions. It’s why shopping is so exhausting. “You need to focus your decision-making energy. You need to routinize yourself. You can’t be going through the day distracted by trivia.”

You need to focus your decision-making energy. You need to routinize yourself.

We’re constantly making decisions: where to eat, where to go, what to see, where to buy the thing I want to buy, how much should it cost, how much do I have, and on and on. When multiplied by two it’s exhausting. It’s comparable to going to the mall and at each store you pass you ask each other, “Do you want to go in this store? What do we need? How much should we pay for it? If they ask for $100, should we negotiate down to $50? Do you have a $50 bill?” And then the next store you go through the same process. Oh, and tomorrow? You have to go back to the mall and do it again. And the day after. And the day after. (To be fair, Bali is a bit more pleasing than an American mall.)

If our only activity on this trip was consumption (eating, drinking, buying), we’d be fine. But we want more from the experience: freedom to think, to create, and to connect. And though our travel muscles are getting stronger, we’ve found it necessary to “routinize” ourselves, as Obama suggests. We eat the same breakfast every morning, go to the same market for groceries, and take the same route to the Youth Center when we volunteer. Our nightly rituals are normalizing. We’re finding a groove and it feels good.

At home these routines are mere afterthoughts. On the road, they are critical to being open to the whole experience.