Don't waste precious brain power on trivial matters

If a person who was originally very rational and peaceful suddenly becomes irritable and irritable, and does a lot of incomprehensible things, it is likely that he is "overloaded in decision-making". Reducing unnecessary decisions in our lives can help focus on important things and reduce stress, as many celebrities do.

Every day, we have to make a lot of decisions.

Should I take a nap? When should I leave work? Do you want to go to exercise today? If you want to exercise, when to go?

The list goes on.

Some of these decisions are important, but most are trivial.

Whatever kind of decision you make, it's exhausting.

By noon one day, I felt like I didn't have the energy to make a deliberate decision.

As a result, you'll end up making more bad decisions.

For example, you decide to drink a glass of soda instead of a healthy cup of boiled water, or you decide to brush up on TikTok, even though there's still a lot of work to be done.

Fortunately, there are ways to avoid it.

Why is there no benefit in making too many decisions?

Studies have shown that people make too many decisions that affect their lives. Because human beings have a limited ability to make decisions through continuous deep thinking.

What does this mean? For example, when you wake up one morning and decide what to eat for breakfast, it will take some brain power, so when you have to make a decision at night whether you should eat cake, you don't have enough brain power to think.

As a result, you probably don't have to think about it and decide to eat the cake directly.

This is called decision fatigue, which is a human state of mind, that is, the decisions made in the present will reduce the ability to make decisions in the future.

John Tierney, one of the authors of the New York Times bestselling book Willpower, said:

"Decision fatigue helps explain why people who are usually very sensible are angry with colleagues and family members, splurge on a lot of clothes, buy a lot of junk food in the supermarket, and can't resist the rust protection service of new cars promoted by dealers." No matter how rational and far-sighted a person is, he cannot make one decision after another without paying any physical price. This physical cost is different from ordinary physical fatigue – you don't feel tired – but in fact, your mental energy is already very low. ”

In short, every decision you make consumes your mental energy. Just choosing A or B is such a simple thinking question, it will make you tired and reduce your brain power.

Therefore, the more decisions you make in a day, the weaker your decision-making process will be.

How successful people can make fewer decisions

Many successful people like Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, and Albert Einstein understand that the less time they spend making decisions means more brainpower and time to do other things.

Because of this, they decided to adopt uniform dress and other ways to reduce the number of times they make decisions in a day.

For example, Mark Zuckerberg usually wears a gray T-shirt paired with jeans. When asked why he did this, he said:

"I really want to streamline my life and try to avoid making decisions about other things than thinking about how to best serve the society."

Consider Steve Jobs's famous outfit: He wears the same black turtleneck, blue jeans, and New Balance sneakers every day. This has become his signature look and part of Apple's overall brand. Steve also understands that the brain power he uses to make decisions is limited. If he spends an extra minute of brain power each day deciding which T-shirt to wear, it will reduce his brain power to think about the development of the company's business.

Former U.S. President Barack Obama wore the same blue or gray suit for most of his tenure. In an interview with Vanity Fair, Obama explained:

"I'm trying to squeeze the decisions that need to be made. I don't want to spend energy making decisions on eating and putting on because I have so many other decisions to make. ”

Also well known, Albert Einstein had many gray suits of the same style so that he didn't have to waste time and brains deciding which outfit to wear every morning.

Simplify what life should be like

You might find it strange that successful people like Jobs, Zuckerberg, Einstein wear the same clothes every day, but they're absolutely right for the right reasons.

Of course, if you wear the same clothes every day, life can be a little boring. But if fashion is really important to you, then you certainly don't have to wear the same clothes every day.

And there are steps you can take to reduce the decisions you need to make.

For example, here are 5 things you can do:

Like Steve, Zuckerberg, and Einstein, find a few T-shirts, sweaters, jeans, and skirts you like and buy more for each. Then basically every day you wear the same outfit.

Design a morning routine. People always have to make a lot of trivial decisions in the morning, but you can prescribe things to do in advance, such as what to wear, what to eat, what time to leave, what time to get up, etc. Make them routines that automate all the decisions you make in the morning (without having to think about it).

If you exercise, schedule each day at a fixed time. Don't constantly expend your brain trying to figure out when it's a good time to go for a run or to the gym.

Buy all your groceries once a week, on the same day.

Eat the same meal every day. This can be a great weight loss tool, but the main purpose is to keep you from worrying all day or every day about what meals to cook, what ingredients to use, and what the nutritional value of each meal is.

　　These are just 5 of the hundreds of decisions you need to make in a day, and you can learn how to turn those decisions into automated procedures without the need for decision thinking. But let's be honest, about 80% of the decisions you make every day are likely to turn into "automated." You just need to understand which decisions aren't very important and then automate them.

Simplify your life!

Our daily lives are tired enough. So if you're still fretting about small things like what to wear every day, you'll become more exhausted over time.

The consequence is that in the most important moments, you will make more wrong decisions.

You'll get angry with your partner over small things, you'll buy junk food that you shouldn't eat, and you'll spend money on things you don't need.

Don't let this kind of thing happen to you. So, by reducing the decisions you make every day, leave your precious brain power to important decisions of the day.

In doing so, you will find yourself significantly less stressed, more efficient, and more likely to be happy.