Default Mode: Pre-Decide the Small Stuff

For when by midday your brain is fried from a hundred tiny choices: what to wear, what to eat, what order to do things, and the actual work hasn't started

Steps

List the recurring decisions that drain you: meals, outfits, routes, morning order, evening wind-down
Pick one to defaultify this week. Build a tiny menu: 3 breakfasts you rotate, 2 work outfits, 1 default route
Write your defaults somewhere visible (fridge, mirror, notes app home screen) so 'past you' chose for 'today you'
Give yourself a 'wildcard' slot per category so it doesn't feel like a cage: one breakfast, one outfit can break the menu
Review monthly. If a default stops working, swap it. Defaults are tools, not rules

What you need

Pen and paper or a notes app, 20 minutes one evening to set the first menu

Why it works

Decision-making uses the same finite executive function pool as task initiation and emotional regulation. Pre-deciding low-value choices preserves the pool for what actually matters.

Age guidance

Adults and older teens.

Real-world example

An autistic developer was exhausted before standup every day. They built a 3-shirt rotation and a default breakfast (oats, banana, coffee). Within a fortnight, mornings stopped feeling like an obstacle course.

Troubleshooting

If novelty-seeking ADHD brain rebels, frame defaults as 'energy savings' for the things you actually want to spend brain on
Don't defaultify everything at once. One category per week is plenty
If you can't pick the first default, ask: 'What did past-me do that worked?' Copy that