How Introverts Can Reduce Mental Load and Save Energy
We make countless decisions each day, and that mental load can drain an introvert’s energy just as much as socializing.
Like other introverts, I thrived during the pandemic-era of remote work because it meant a quieter and calmer environment. However, I was surprised to discover I frequently still had an introvert hangover.
My job can require lots of people-centric activities, but it also requires reactive decision-making, monitoring lots of moving pieces, and meeting tight deadlines. I realized that while my outer world was quieter working remotely, my inner world was just as loud and busy as ever. That inner busyness led to decision avoidance, mental and physical exhaustion, brain fog, irritability, noise avoidance, overwhelm, depression, and general burnout.
If those symptoms sound like the introvert hangover to you, well, you’d be totally correct!
However, they are also symptoms of “decision fatigue” and “mental load,” which is exactly why I still felt the notorious hangover when working quietly from home.
In most cases, you’re born an introvert. Being an introvert is actually a matter of how your brain responds to dopamine. When I look back over my life, I feel confident in saying I was born a classic introvert.
So when the call went out to return to in-person work, I knew it was in my best introverted interests to figure out how to reduce the hangover symptoms I had some control over. You know, since my brain wasn’t open to changing how it processed dopamine.
There are lots of ways to reduce decision fatigue and mental load. I chose to focus on automating four areas of my life to cut down on overall mental effort.
What Are Decision Fatigue and Mental Load?
Apple or orange? Pants or skirt? Renew my lease or buy? Big or small, straightforward or complex, decisions always require some level of mental effort.
We make a staggering 35,000 big and small choices a day. (Should I click save or save as?) Some days may be fine. But other days, the onslaught of daily choices can lead to decision fatigue. Fatigue is caused by many different factors. But it’s particularly common if you’re someone whose decisions impact other people or who weighs all the options first.
Mental load includes decision-making but also short- and long-term memory, problem-solving, and analysis. It is often referenced as the never-ending mental labor of women managing households, where they schedule appointments, check on everyone’s well-being, and regulate pantry staples.
But mental load shows up at work too — in monitoring meetings, noting deliveries, and tracking performance. Ultimately, it’s the invisible mental effort of juggling all the details of life.
How Mental Effort Can Lead to an Introvert Hangover
Decision fatigue and mental load can both deplete an introvert’s mental energy in much the same way as too many social interactions, leading to feelings of overwhelm and overstimulation.
The reason may once again come back to our brains.
A study published in The American Journal of Psychiatry found the frontal lobe — a part of the brain responsible for executive function (i.e., long-term memory, analysis, problem-solving, and decision-making) — has more blood in introverts than in extroverts. This research indicates our brains more consistently engage in these functions. That helps explain why, even in my quieter working environment, my daily responsibilities could drain me just like too much people-time.
When I no longer had to navigate the social interactions and noise of in-office work, it became easier to see how much these mental tasks were contributing to my daily energy drain and overstimulation. Now that this mental effort is once again paired with in-person socializing, I’ve taken targeted steps to reduce those hangover triggers.
4 Ways to Automate Your Life
Automating your life means making parts of it largely automatic, so after the initial setup, they can take care of themselves without your active intervention.
As part of AMA’s series “What Doctors Wish Patients Knew,” Dr. Lisa MacLean recommends automating your less important decisions as one way to reduce decision fatigue. However, this approach can also help reduce mental load by automating some aspects of household management.
Below are four ways to automate your life and some tips for getting started.
1. Your Environment
A clutter-free, organized environment (as well as a minimalist lifestyle) can, in and of itself, be useful for introverts by creating calmer, less stimulating surroundings. But decluttering and getting organized can also help streamline your daily routine and reduce your mental effort.
The idiom “a place for everything and everything in its place” is really quite true in this instance. When your things have a proper home and your daily tasks have a system, you use less mental effort to maintain your household, prepare your meals, and even keep up your personal style.
You can automate without being terribly organized or uncluttered. But taking the time to do this makes automating other parts of your life easier and more mentally beneficial.
Tip: One tool we use to declutter important papers, old photo albums, and even special holiday cards is a scanner. Not only will that paper pile shrink to the size of a flash drive, but if you name and organize files consistently, you’ll no longer have to remember which banker box holds your favorite birthday card. Digitization makes it all searchable.
2. Your Household
Technology can automate your household in several ways.
Household Staples
Many online retailers offer subscription options for the items you use every month. While this feature often saves you money, it can also lighten your cognitive load. You no longer need to mentally track your supply of pet food, remember to purchase more, and then weigh endless brand, feature, and price options at the store. Instead, review your subscriptions once a month, then forget about them.
Tip: If you don’t know how often to have something delivered, write the date you opened it on the item and see how long it takes you to use it. That will give you a good estimate of how often it needs to be delivered.
Bills
Paying your bills is another household task you can automate. Monthly bills rarely arrive on a similar schedule, so enrolling in automatic bill pay means you don’t need to track each one and its individual due date, which removes that worrisome task from your mental to-do list.
Tip: Since you are responsible for your payments even if automatic bill pay malfunctions, I recommend still verifying that each bill gets paid. One easy way to do this is to set up text or email alerts with your bank and credit card companies so you know when each bill goes through.
Calendar Apps and Alarms
Calendar apps are nice for automating schedules, but don’t forget about alarms.
At night, I decompress and recharge with a book, and the very last thing I want to do is watch the clock so I get to bed on time. Setting up a recurring alarm means I can engross myself in reading and forget about the clock.
Alarms enable you to monitor the time for repeat events without looking at your watch. When to start dinner, when to get ready for bed, when to leave for work — create an alarm and let your phone do the rest.
Tip: Phone alarms include a calendar feature, so you can also set an alarm to go off on a specific date.
3. Your Food
Growing up, I didn’t know I was an introvert. When my family ate out, I often asked my dad to order dinner for me because my brain froze looking at the menu. My family often joked about it. But I know now I suffered from decision fatigue brought on by socializing.
Automating your food means reducing the mental effort needed to figure out what to eat. This, in turn, saves you time because you no longer have to ponder each meal, and it saves you money because it eliminates many impulse buys.
Options for automating your food can require some to no work and range from cheap to expensive.
Meal Planning
Instead of standing in front of the open fridge each night, know exactly what to prepare and eat without giving it a second thought.
In its simplest (and cheapest) form, meal planning requires pen, paper, and perhaps your favorite cookbook. Before each week’s grocery shopping trip, determine meals for each person in your household. Then, create your grocery shopping list from the foods you’ll need for the plan. This method does require initial mental effort. But during the week, you can turn off your brain and follow the plan.
Or automate the entire process by purchasing a meal-planning app that not only creates a weekly meal plan but your grocery list as well. Many of these planning apps consider diverse dietary needs, provide customized recipes, and include nutrition information if your focus is on health.
Tip: Coordinate your meal plan with your week’s schedule. Note which day(s) you plan to eat out, which day(s) you have office-provided meals, and which day(s) you intend to eat at a party or event.
Meal Preparation and Batch Cooking
Both meal preparation (preparing ingredients before you need them) and batch cooking (creating several large meals at once with the goal of freezing them or eating them later) pair well with meal planning.
Doing one or both of these means you’ll have less to do and think about when mealtime rolls around. Meal prep and batch cooking also free up more time during the week for you to do the solitary activities introverts need to recharge.
Tip: Another way to do batch cooking is to make larger meals and freeze half. For couples, make a family-sized meal; for families, double your normal meal size. We do this over the weekend so we can freeze some and enjoy some later in the week.
Meal Delivery Services
This may be the most expensive food automation option but also the one with the least mental effort. Meal services either provide all the ingredients for specific recipes that you prepare or provide prepared meals that you simply reheat.
Some delivery companies require a weekly delivery subscription (did someone say more automation?). Others allow you to order as needed. If you prefer to make your own meals, oftentimes those companies include weekly meal planning in addition to their food delivery. So you’re getting a plan, recipes, and groceries delivered right to your door.
Tip: Consider ordering premade meals for your most busy or stressful meals — for me, it’s lunch. On my way out the door, I grab a premade lunch — no decision-making needed.
4. Your Style
Automating your style may not appeal to everyone. But if you find mornings stressful, it may be worth considering.
The essence of style automation is the personal uniform, where you wear the same style or the same outfit every day or every weekday. A uniform eliminates the long internal deliberations over what to wear each morning.
Many successful people — even fashionistas — wear a personal uniform. For me, it appeals to my need for less stress but also ensures I always wear something I feel good in.
You can also automate your hairstyle. Find a style that works with, or is natural to, your hair type. For instance, my hair is straight on top and really wavy underneath. Going with a bob hairstyle means I have lots of volume without any additional need for styling. So, one less thing to think about in the morning.
Tip: If you’re interested in a uniform but not ready to commit, pick out your favorite 2–3 outfits and wear them all week long. Note how you feel both getting ready and throughout the day to see if a uniform could help reduce your mental load.
Automating your life helps free up mental energy and lower overstimulation. I find it also reduces the time and stress associated with getting ready for work each morning. And that means I’m starting my day with more inner calm as well. 
