Monninghoff-Letters on MONNINGHOFF Labs

Why Your Brain Hates Decisions

Sun, 12 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Most people think they’re overwhelmed because of work.
They’re wrong.

They’re overwhelmed because of decisions.

Not big ones.
Small ones.
Constant ones.
Invisible ones.

You get a letter from the tax office.

Now what?

You open it. You read it.
And then the real process starts:

Do I scan this?
Do I take a photo?
Where do I save it?
What do I call the file?

Is this important?
Do I need a reminder?
Do I send this to my tax advisor?

Sun, 05 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I built multiple companies before I realized something I couldn’t ignore anymore.

I wasn’t disorganized.
I was re-deciding everything.

Every morning: where does this email go?
Every meeting: should I write this down?
Every idea: where do I put this?

The work wasn’t the problem.
The decisions about the work were.

Every productivity tool starts the same way:

A blank page.
A blank list.
A blank document.
An empty calendar.

Sun, 29 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

You’re not just one thing.

You are a parent.
A founder.
A partner.
Part of a family.
Part of a system.

Sometimes part of a team, a company, a club, a responsibility you didn’t plan.

Each of these comes with inputs:

Messages.
Decisions.
Documents.
Expectations.
Open loops.

And none of them arrive one by one.

They arrive all at once.

It’s not that life is too much.

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Not when things were easy.
But when everything started to feel heavy.

Too many roles.
Too many decisions.
Too little time to think.

I was running companies.
Leading teams.
Carrying responsibility.

And still — something felt off.

Not because I didn’t work hard.
But because I was constantly reacting.

Reacting to emails.
Reacting to problems.
Reacting to expectations.

There was no space left to think clearly.

Looking back, the problem was not pressure.