This reminds me of the "power of two choices" in load balancing [1] and is summed up by this quote:<p>> The solution lies in the “power of two choices” load‑balancing algorithm. Instead of making the absolute best choice using incomplete data, with “power of two choices” you pick two queues at random and chose the better option of the two, avoiding the worse choice.<p>> “Power of two choices” is efficient to implement. You don’t have to compare all queues to choose the best option each time; instead, you only need to compare two. And, perhaps unintuitively, it works better at scale than the best‑choice algorithms. It avoids the undesired herd behavior by the simple approach of avoiding the worst queue and distributing traffic with a degree of randomness.<p>I suffer from this decision fatigue, burnout, or anxiety all too often. I'm also especially vulnerable as someone with ADHD, since I don't get that dopamine hit when I successfully accomplish a task.<p>What I've found really useful is a combination of medication and accepting that I should continue to do things my not making the worst decision. For example, if I need to do a DIY task, I'll read a blog, watch a YouTube, and maybe ask two contractors and make the best decision out of whatever I find out. Alternatively, if I need to accomplish a bunch of chores, I'll look at the list and roughly sort them by urgency and importance. I don't need to pick the most urgent-important task, just one that falls into that category.<p>I think of it as time-boxing for your bookkeeping. I find the meta-work that helps you decide what work you need to do can be endless so if I just set a 5 minute or 25 minute alarm, it helps me get out of that bottomless time sink. I also time-box how much productivity time I want to spend on something. Often, I'll think that a task should be easy and I should be able to do it in 30 minutes. But after 30 minutes pass, I'll have a lot more experience to say this if a task is actually worth whatever new estimate I can provide.<p>You can spend an endless amount of time researching and making decisions on how you should behave, but the returns diminish as you do more research and soon you should just do things. Doing things will teach you, sometimes much more than just researching and planning.<p>I'd recommend reading about time-boxing, pomodoro, Eisenhower matrix, deep work, power of two choices, explore vs exploit, and 37% rule if you're interested in "getting things done" and personal performance optimization.<p>[1]: <a href="https://www.nginx.com/blog/nginx-power-of-two-choices-load-balancing-algorithm/" rel="nofollow">https://www.nginx.com/blog/nginx-power-of-two-choices-load-b...</a>