23 Jun Simplify decision making early on in the day!

Every day we are struck with multitude of decisions to make. Right from the time we get up till the time we go to bed – what clothes to wear, what breakfast to make, what lunch to pack, who will drop the children to school, what exercises to do, what make up to use.. etc etc and then at work the complexity of decision making increases.

Decision making consumes our mental reservoir of will power. Will power is a limited resource that we have. It depletes incredibly rapidly. The mental energy gets used with every task and decision we make. Making decisions is one of the most willpower-depleting activities. And will power is needed for more complex tasks through the day.

I believe the answer lies in simplification. By simplifying things, your brain is not fogged with the choices that it has to make. Simplification can be done by pre-planning or minimizing the choices to make. Eg: Breakfast menu can be decided on the weekend. Duration of exercises and specifics can be planned for the week. Choice of clothes and makeup can be made the night before.

This way you free up the cognitive resources for more cumbersome tasks of the day and also mornings are less chaotic. Over time it becomes a habit and the tasks are no longer daunting. Added benefit of simplification is that you can make healthy choices of food and exercise a habit. This way you are not relying on your will power to make these choices.

Preserve your willpower by making automatic decisions early on in the day so that you it left for things that are important and matter most to you. If you’ve got important things to do, you need to do them when you naturally have the most willpower because if you have to make a choice after willpower is depleted, that’s not going to go too well.

Until Next,

Keep Smiling..