By Throughout the day, you make many choices both personally and professionally: What is best to eat Apple or orange? What sort of shirts do you wear? Is this task more important now or later? Is it better to ask for help or get started right away? By the end of the day, we are exhausted from making hundreds of decisions. Is it true that we could reduce the number of decisions we make if we knew how? If it were true, would you be happier? People with the highest levels of success wear the same things every day. They are helping to ensure their successive decisions will be good ones by reducing the number of trivial decisions they make each day. It has been found that the more decisions a person makes in a short period, the lower the quality of each decision.
How to Make Fewer Decisions by Using a Simple Framework
Using this framework, you can change how you prioritize daily choices by implementing the following 4 points. By setting priorities this way, we can maximize the time available to us for important decisions and reduce the time spent on trivial tasks. What does this involve?
- Implementation of an automated system
- Executing it right away
- Scheduling it in your routine
- Engage in internal discussions
The goal is to automate if it takes little time and is of low importance. No time to go to the store to get the essentials? Order them online. Can’t seem to remember to write your rent check? Sign up for electronic bill pay through your bank account. The automation of certain tasks will free you up to make more important decisions.
You should do tasks that occupy very little time but have great importance simply because they are worth the effort. Whether it is eating dinner with your family, picking up your wife from physical therapy, or chatting for work on the phone with colleagues, tasks like these are typically well worth your time.
Plan your time so that dull tasks are done at the same time every day. Depending on your schedule, you might check your calendar during your travel, reply to an email during the first 20 minutes of your workday, clean your apartment on the same day each week, or prepare your lunch for the next day before bed. If you have tasks that are “high in time, but low in importance,” it is necessary to create a schedule that works for you, to put it in one place, and to be consistent with it.
Do your due diligence and research when it comes to tasks that are important as well as time-sensitive — buying a car, moving to a new city, finding a partner, choosing a job. Make a list of the pros and cons, speak with trusted friends or family members, or simply sleep on it. Make sure you have an internal debate before making these choices since they are worth the time and space in your brain.
A Fewer Number of Decisions a Day Can Improve Your Productivity like the below.
You'll have a more relaxed morning if you fix your waking time and stick to it
It’s probably a phrase you’ve heard a million times, Don’t snooze. However, there’s no denying that how you begin your day has a tremendous influence on the rest of it. Think about it: what would you feel like if you…
- Frequently hit the snooze button
- Check the clock before you get out of bed.
- Run through a shower so quickly that you can’t even enjoy it
- You feel bad for forcing your dog to go to the bathroom so quickly
- You can’t possibly have breakfast because you don’t have time
- Your stomach hurts because you’re starving, eat too much at lunch, and feel sick as a result
Doesn’t sound too unpleasant? If only you woke up when you were supposed to, everything would be better.
- Roll out of bed, have a look at the clock, and get ready as soon as possible
- Relax by taking a relaxing shower
- Include fat and protein in your breakfast with no worry to do hurry
By rotating a few established outfits each week, you can save time and effort
Choosing what to wear today, for example, as though it were a life-changing decision, is as stupid as it gets. Even if your job requires you to present a professional image, you don’t have to fret over your wardrobe every morning. You can make your life easier every week by simply pairing a matching top and bottom in your closet after doing laundry. You should only need think about what to wear for a minute or two if you want more variety. Just switch things up every week, but don’t overdo it.
Maintaining your health requires you to make exercise a priority.
There is no ideal time for exercising. You do it whenever it fits your schedule. Go ahead and grab your day planner or online calendar if you use one. In the next 3-5 days, is there at least a one-time slot with at least 20 minutes free most of the time? Well, then congrats, you’ve just found time to work out! It is easier to stick to a fitness routine if you exercise the same days and times each week. With time, you will become so habituated to doing it that it feels like second nature
You won't have to worry about daily meal planning by cooking in bulk and putting your meals on autopilot
Most people won’t even think of eating the same thing for lunch or dinner but have no problem eating the same thing for breakfast. Why is that? The convenience and cost savings of cooking in bulk, or better yet, preparing 5-7 days’ worth of meals at one time, are both opportunities to eat healthily. No need to be a master chef: you can simply grill a pound or two of chicken at a time, chop up a whole onion or pepper, and then store the food in reusable containers in the refrigerator. For example, you could use these foods to make chicken tacos and salad. You just need spinach or lettuce, sour cream, and cheese, and these foods could serve as lunch or dinner for the week.
Is there ever a time when you feel so overwhelmed that you have no idea where to begin? It’s best not to dwell on that feeling since it leads to procrastination. No matter how busy you are, there is never enough time in the day, and if you stress out about how busy you are, it becomes increasingly difficult to get motivated to get to work. It can be hard to see things from any perspective when you are caught up in the daily grind, so planning your day the night before is recommended. You may want to write down the three most important things you must complete in a notebook (or you may want to email it to yourself so you don’t forget). If you accomplish those things, consider your day successful.
It doesn’t matter how well you plan; if distractions get in the way, you could ruin your intentions. When people procrastinate, they tend to do “busy work” to feel better about themselves. Would putting off that presentation you don’t want to work on making sense if you organized your desk for a good reason? If you check your email constantly, are you delaying sales calls, or are you checking it because you have to? Are you washing dishes as a gesture of goodwill, or are you avoiding writing the reports that are due today? It is fine to keep your desk tidy, respond to emails, or even do the dishes when you have more pressing concerns. But you shouldn’t do these things while you should be attending to more pressing matters.
Conclusion
Since we make a lot of decisions with low impact, we must examine how many of them we make each day and see if we can reduce their number. Even though we make many decisions, it is important to acknowledge how much time and energy these decisions consume. When you self-diagnose your low-impact decisions, you can focus on the more important ones by making the necessary changes. Finding out what you want to do before you go to sleep is the first step to making a change. By doing this, you won’t have to decide in the morning, saving you time, allowing you to focus on creating and being productive. Human existence would not be complete without making decisions. As a result of incorporating some of these tips into your life, you will be able to identify when you are experiencing decision fatigue, so you can avoid making impulsive and damaging decisions and be more productive.