Journey Together
Clarify
Clarifying decisions is crucial for someone managing a chronic condition or caregiving because it helps reduce mental overload and ensures that choices align with needs and energy levels.
By taking the time to clarify what decision needs to be made, mental energy can go towards the most meaningful and impactful decisions, which helps maintain balance in daily life.
Here are 6 ways clarifying helps with decision making.
Promote Self-Compassion
What Needs to Be Decided?
What Needs to Be Decided?
- Why it matters: Clarifying your options helps you be patient with yourself and realize that you don’t need to make every choice perfectly or immediately.
- Tip: Practice self-compassion by acknowledging that it’s okay to take your time. It’s also okay to seek advice and be kind to yourself during decision-making moments.
What Needs to Be Decided?
What Needs to Be Decided?
What Needs to Be Decided?
- Why it matters: Chronic conditions and caregiving can involve numerous decisions, but not all of them are equally urgent. Defining what truly needs your attention prevents feeling overwhelmed by too many choices.
- Tip: Take a moment to ask, Is this decision necessary right now? If not, then go on to another decision or consider breaking a bigger decision into smaller steps.
Focus Limited Energy
What Needs to Be Decided?
What Can Be Delegated?
- Why it matters: Managing limited energy is key in caregiving or navigating chronic conditions. Ensure you're directing your focus and energy to what matters most.
- Tip: Use a "decision filter." Write down the pros and cons quickly, and see if a decision aligns with your current priorities (like health, rest, or family needs). "The Spoon Theory" can help with determining how much energy might be available in a day.
What Can Be Delegated?
can a Decision Be Delayed?
What Can Be Delegated?
- Why it matters: Not every task or decision must be handled personally. Clarification helps identify what can be delegated to others, reducing your burden.
- Tip: Identify decisions that don’t require your direct involvement—such as scheduling appointments or handling minor household tasks—and ask for help.
can a Decision Be Delayed?
can a Decision Be Delayed?
can a Decision Be Delayed?
- Why it matters: Sometimes, decisions don’t need to be made immediately. Clarifying whether a choice can be postponed helps you focus on urgent matters first, and it can reduce stress about having to act quickly.
- Tip: Ask yourself, Can this decision wait for a day or two? If there is time, "sleeping on a decision" can bring clarity too. When our brains process things at night while we're sleeping, sometimes we'll wake up knowing a clear direction to take.
Prevent Overthinking
can a Decision Be Delayed?
can a Decision Be Delayed?
- Why it matters: Overthinking decisions can add unnecessary stress. Clarifying the options and narrowing down the most realistic choices helps simplify the process.
- Tip: Set a time limit for decisions. Once you’ve clarified your options, make a choice and move forward, allowing space for flexibility if needed.
Evaluate
Evaluating decisions is crucial for someone managing a chronic condition or caregiving because it allows for a more thoughtful, balanced approach to choices that impact health, energy, and well-being.
By taking the time to reflect on potential outcomes, priorities, and consequences, you can ensure decisions align with your needs and help avoid unnecessary stress or burnout.
Here are 6 ways evaluating helps with decision making.
Is the Decision Necessary?
Is the Decision Necessary?
Is the Decision Necessary?
- Why it matters: Not every decision is worth your time or energy. Evaluation helps you determine which choices actually require your input and which can be simplified, postponed, or delegated.
- Tip: Ask yourself, Will this still matter tomorrow—or next week? If not, consider letting it go or choosing the simplest route. Here's an article on easing decision fatigue.
Grounded Decisions
Is the Decision Necessary?
Is the Decision Necessary?
- Why it matters: Emotions can cloud judgment, especially during a flare-up or caregiving crisis. Evaluation creates space to separate feelings from facts before deciding.
- Tip: Pause and take a few deep breaths. Then ask, Am I making this decision out of fear, guilt, or pressure—or out of care and clarity?
Look at Different Options
Is the Decision Necessary?
Look at Different Options
- Why it matters: In high-stress or low-energy situations, it’s tempting to go with the first available solution. Evaluation ensures you consider which option best fits your needs and capacity.
- Tip: Write down 2–3 possible choices with a couple pros and cons for each. If two people are involved, listing 4-6 possible choices rather than just 2 can help reduce an "either/or" feeling. Instead of choosing between "your option" or "my option", that gives a choice from multiple options.
Perspectives
Confident & Aligned Decisions
Look at Different Options
- Why it matters: When you're under stress, it’s easy to focus on short-term relief. Evaluation helps you step back and consider long-term impact—for yourself and those you care for.
- Tip: Ask, How will I feel about this decision later? or How might this affect my health, energy, or relationships?
Realistic Expectations
Confident & Aligned Decisions
Confident & Aligned Decisions
- Why it matters: Evaluation helps you weigh what’s actually possible given your energy, time, or physical limits—so you don’t overcommit or stretch yourself too thin.
- Tip: Use a quick checklist: Do I have the time? The energy? The support? If not, consider modifying the decision or saying no.
Confident & Aligned Decisions
Confident & Aligned Decisions
Confident & Aligned Decisions
- Why it matters: Evaluating your choices ensures your actions reflect your values, boundaries, and current capacity—so you feel more confident and less conflicted afterward.
- Tip: Before finalizing, ask yourself, Does this decision help me win in the areas that matter most to me right now—health, rest, family, peace?
Prioritize
For someone managing a chronic condition or caregiving, prioritizing during decision-making is essential because time, energy, and capacity are often limited.
Focusing on what truly matters helps reduce unnecessary decisions, prevents burnout, and ensures the most important needs are met first.
Here are 6 ways prioritizing helps with decision making.
Focus Energy on What Matters Most
Focus Energy on What Matters Most
Focus Energy on What Matters Most
- Why it matters: Energy is often limited when caregiving or dealing with a chronic condition. Prioritizing ensures you're not draining yourself on low-impact tasks.
- Tip: Ask yourself, If I only have energy for one thing today, what should it be? That becomes your top priority.
Prevent Decision Fatigue
Focus Energy on What Matters Most
Focus Energy on What Matters Most
- Why it matters: Facing too many decisions at once can be paralyzing. Prioritizing reduces cognitive load by helping you choose what to tackle first.
- Tip: Use a simple system like "Do First, Do Later" or David Allen's Getting Things Done Method: "Do, Defer, Delegate, Delete" to sort your decisions and tasks.
Time for Rest & Recovery
Focus Energy on What Matters Most
Time for Rest & Recovery
- Why it matters: Without prioritizing rest, it’s easy to burn out. Treating rest as a non-negotiable priority keeps you better equipped to manage everything else.
- Tip: Build recovery time into your daily plan—consider it just as vital as medical or caregiving tasks.
Urgent vs. Important
Delegation and Letting Go
Time for Rest & Recovery
- Why it matters: Some decisions feel urgent but aren't truly important. Prioritizing helps you avoid reacting to pressure and instead act with intention.
- Tip: Use the question: Is this urgent, important, both, or neither? Handle what’s urgent and important first. The Eisenhower Decision Matrix looks at urgent vs. important.
Delegation and Letting Go
Delegation and Letting Go
Delegation and Letting Go
- Why it matters: Prioritizing helps you see what you need to handle versus what can be delegated or dropped, saving you from overextension.
- Tip: When something ranks low in priority, ask: Can someone else do this, or can it wait? Then give yourself permission to release it.
Align with Core Values
Delegation and Letting Go
Delegation and Letting Go
- Why it matters: Prioritization ensures your choices support what’s most meaningful—like your health, relationships, or peace of mind—rather than just checking off tasks.
- Tip: Keep a short list of your current top values (e.g., energy, connection, calm) and ask, Does this decision support one of these?
Action Plans
For someone living with a chronic condition or caregiving, having an action plan when making decisions is essential because it turns intention into manageable steps.
An action plan provides clarity, reduces the feeling of being overwhelmed, and helps ensure follow-through—even on days when energy, focus, or time are limited.
Here are 6 ways action plans help with forward movement in decision making.
Break Big Decisions into Small Steps
Break Big Decisions into Small Steps
Break Big Decisions into Small Steps
- Why it matters: Large or complex decisions can feel overwhelming, especially when you're already mentally or physically taxed. An action plan simplifies the process.
- Tip: Use a simple format: Step 1—What’s the very first small action I can take? Even if you write out just the next 1–3 steps, not even the whole journey, that can help with forward movement.
Clarify Who, What, When
Break Big Decisions into Small Steps
Break Big Decisions into Small Steps
- Why it matters: Vague plans stall progress. Action plans help define roles, tasks, and timing so decisions become practical, not just theoretical.
- Tip: Include Who’s responsible, What needs to be done, and When it should happen. Anything from a sticky note to a phone reminder can help you stay on track. Here is how to create "SMART" goals.
Reduce Decision Fatigue
Break Big Decisions into Small Steps
Flexibility Within Structure
- Why it matters: When you're managing constant responsibilities, it’s exhausting to remember everything. An action plan frees up brain space.
- Tip: Write your plan down, even if it’s brief. Keep it somewhere visible (like a fridge, phone, or journal) so you don’t have to mentally revisit it.
Flexibility Within Structure
A Sense of Control & Progress
Flexibility Within Structure
- Why it matters: Chronic illness and caregiving often require adjusting on the fly. Action plans offer a framework that can bend without breaking.
- Tip: Include backup steps in your plan—like a “Plan A” and “Plan B” version of the same goal, depending on your energy or circumstances.
Ask for Help
A Sense of Control & Progress
A Sense of Control & Progress
- Why it matters: You don’t have to do everything alone. A clear action plan makes it easier to ask for help with specific tasks.
- Tip: If someone asks how they can support you, refer to your plan. Example: “Could you make that call for me?” or “Would you be able to drop this off?”
A Sense of Control & Progress
A Sense of Control & Progress
A Sense of Control & Progress
- Why it matters: Feeling stuck or powerless can be common when living with a chronic condition or caregiving. Completing even small steps helps restore a sense of control and autonomy.
- Tip: Check off each step as you go. Visual progress—like crossing something off a list—can be incredibly motivating and affirming.