The 35,000 Decision Trap (And Your Escape Plan)
The small things, that can waste a 100k $ a year
I had a realization last Tuesday that changed everything.
I was exhausted by 2 PM, frustrated that I couldn’t focus on the strategic work that actually moves my business forward. Then I started counting.
By lunch, I’d already made 847 micro-decisions. Which email to open first. What time to schedule three different calls. Whether to review that proposal now or after the client meeting. Which task to tackle next from my endless list.
Each choice felt insignificant. Together, they were draining my cognitive reserves faster than a cryptocurrency crash.
Here’s the kicker: research shows we make over 35,000 decisions daily. While successful entrepreneurs obsess over the big strategic choices, these tiny decisions are quietly sabotaging their mental energy for what actually matters.
The Productivity Paradox
You know what’s fascinating? In all the productivity advice flooding LinkedIn and business books, micro-decision overwhelm barely gets mentioned. Everyone talks about meeting overload (fair point). Nobody talks about choice overload.
Yet Barack Obama wore only blue or gray suits specifically to preserve mental energy for presidential decisions. Jeff Bezos forwards customer complaints with a single character—”?”—to automate his attention allocation.
They get it: the path to extraordinary outcomes isn’t making more decisions. It’s making fewer, better ones.
Your Digital Decision Assistant (3-Step Setup)
Here’s the system I built that gave me back 2 hours of mental energy daily:
Step 1: The Morning Automation
I created a Custom GPT that handles my daily scheduling. Each morning, I paste my task list and energy level. It generates an optimized schedule that protects my first 2 hours for deep work and minimizes context switching.
Prompt template:
“You are my scheduling assistant. I’ll provide tasks, energy level (1-10), and constraints. Create an optimized schedule using my preference for [define yours: morning deep work, afternoon meetings, etc.]. Always protect strategic thinking time.”
Step 2: Email Triage System
Instead of scanning 73 emails and deciding which to tackle first, my N8N AI automation categorizes them immediately: URGENT (today), IMPORTANT (this week), DELEGATE, or ARCHIVE all while keeping the inbox clean and focused.
Step 3: Decision Templates
For recurring choices, I use simple frameworks:
Under 10 minutes consideration → Quick decision matrix
Resource decisions under $X → Auto-approve criteria
Meeting requests → Essential attendee & agenda filter
The Real Win
After three weeks, something shifted. I wasn’t just saving time—I was preserving the quality of my thinking for decisions that actually shape my future.
Last week, I made a strategic pivot that could add $200K to our revenue. I’m convinced I wouldn’t have had the mental clarity for that insight if I was still burning cognitive fuel on whether to respond to that email now or in 20 minutes.
Your Turn
Pick one category of micro-decisions that drain you most. Maybe it’s email prioritization. Maybe it’s daily scheduling. Maybe it’s those constant “should I do this now or later?” moments.
Build one automation this week. Start simple. The goal isn’t perfection—it’s liberation.
The most successful people aren’t those who make the most decisions. They’re those who eliminate the decisions that don’t deserve their irreplaceable mental energy.
What micro-decisions are you going to automate first? Hit reply and let me know—I read every response.
P.S. I’m working on a N8N workflow library for entrepreneurs to automate their daily chores so you can focus on building your business strategically. If you’re interested, subscribe to be the first to hear when it launches.