Guy Reams (00:00.654)
Today is day 196, stress is a dependent variable. So I'm thinking about this topic today because, well, I'm under a lot of stress. So I was trying to, you know, a while back ago, I was helping my daughter with her algebra homework, and there was a section on deciding the independent versus the dependent variable. Now I've done this maybe six times now. I've helped my.
kids and my wife and various other people through algebra. So it's like I didn't know that growing up I would be learning algebra over and over and over again several times in my life. You know, when you were a child you always said, well, I'll never need to know this when you grow up. No, you will need to know it because you'll need to teach it to your kids and your grandkids. So I imagine that what's going to happen is I will be teaching algebra for my entire life.
So I now am really starting to understand, it's taken me 50 years, but I now really understand independent and dependent variables. Like I can pick out which one should be on the X axis and which one should be on the Y axis pretty easily now. It used to always cause me problems. But the thing that dawned on me this time was that the independent -dependent relationship ultimately defines what is called a causal link. When variables directly impact each other,
that is a causal relationship. So when one variable directly impacts another, it is said to have causation, or it causes the other variable to change. So when you create scenarios where one variable impacts another variable, you have created a causal link. So the first thing that I thought of applying this to my life was stress. Stress is an absolute dependent variable. It goes up and down.
based on other variables that I have control over. This led me to the next conclusion, decision making as a direct and causal link to stress. So it's not decision making that causes the stress, it's the number of decisions I have to make and the weight and severity of those decisions. So decision making is like a multi -factor thing. There's two factors at input into your
Guy Reams (02:24.334)
current decision -making load. And that load is based on the weight of the decisions, how big of an impact they'll have on your life, and the number of them you have to make. And I think both are interplaying to the total load of decision -making you're under. If you're under a lot of decision -making load, meaning you have a lot of decisions to make, or they're incredibly complex, or they're high stakes, then that will directly impact your stress level.
There are three, I think, primary reasons why this happens. Number one, cognitive load. Decision making requires you to process information which can completely overload your mental capacities and cause you to induce stress. A couple days ago, I had a decision to make and I was under a lot of stress thinking about that decision. So the more impactful the decision is, the more likely it is to cause cognitive load.
Second, uncertainty. If you're uncertain about outcomes, well, heightened anxiety and stress as you weigh different options in your life. Uncertain cognitive load, the amount of stuff you have to process and the uncertainty of the outcome, those two factors can cause your stress level to go up dramatically. Third, consequences. A decision's potential impact that we don't even know, but we can start to think about the impact of a decision.
The thinking about those consequences also adds stress. So when you have a load of stress on you, whether the number of decisions to make or the severity of the decisions to make, those three things will impact you, cognitive load, uncertainty, and consequence. I did just a brief scan of some, you know, one of the greatest things I think about AI tools these days.
is there are a bunch of AI tools that have been developed that specifically provide you with data from peer -reviewed journal articles. Now, in my past, in order to find those, you had to go to specialty websites to search them out, but not anymore. You can go to some AI tools that have been generated to search through hundreds and hundreds of thousands of journal articles to give you kind of a
Guy Reams (04:48.878)
a quick glance into what current research is saying. So I asked one of those LLMs that's focused on journal research to tell me what psychological research in the last five to 10 years have had on stress about mental and physical health. So the impact of stress on that. And there's a very uniform response that decision making,
The responsibilities associated with decision -making in particular affects directly both mental and physical health. In fact, there's a lot of evidence that says that when you're in a role that requires a lot of decision -making, mental and physical health is directly impacted. So how do you reduce stress? Understanding this causal relationship can help you reduce that stress. Number one, go ahead and make a decision.
If you've got a bunch of decisions on your plate, make a few. Or if you've got a big one to make, make it, make the decision. The quick resolution and making the decision can remove that immediately and your stress will suddenly plummet. So if you have a big decision weighing on your shoulders, make it. And then that'll cause the stress level to go down. Or if you're making too many decisions, like maybe you're just, you're processing 30 to 40 major decisions a day and that's just too much.
You can get that down by reducing the number of roles you have in your life. If you have too many roles, too much going on, then you're having too many decisions. Go ahead and make your apologies and duck out of a few of them. Get out of a few responsibilities. That way your stress level will drop.
The bottom line is that you cannot control stress because stress is completely dependent on lots of factors, but the big factor is that it's dependent on what your decision -making load is in your life. So you want to reduce stress, reduce your decision -making load. Either reduce the severity or the number of decisions you're making in your life. Thank you.