What’s a decision-free day and how it can help!
Last week, I got on a plane for the first time this year and spent three days in Los Angeles, meeting friends and attending meetings. Almost all my decisions had been made for me – which restaurants we would eat at, what meals would be served at what time, how the days would flow. I missed those low-decision days when I got back home. Making the grocery list, planning travel, weighing decisions about calendar requests for the week – that made for a more stressful Sunday morning than I could handle after a week of travel. So, I chose to make the rest of the day as decision-free as possible. Which got me thinking about how to do this more often. I’m offering up a guide to reducing the number of decisions you need to make in every given day/week.
Establish more routines – the same breakfasts, the same time to leave home, the same time to go for a run, etc. I hate exercise, but this year, I’ve committed a block of my calendar time to it, and I find that I just make my way out the door more easily when I’m not asking, “What time can I go to the gym?” Because that one question is already answered. (And def not the same as “Do I want to go to the gym?”)
Delegate decisions – let your friends pick where you’ll meet for dinner (there’s always that friend who loves to do this), your team decide where the staff retreat can be, etc. When my husband or kid makes dinner, it’s so satisfying, even if it’s not what I would have made. Because, it shows up on a plate and I had to do nothing to get it there.
Make decisions the day before – This is a great strategy for days when you’re off, or when you know you’ll be particularly stressed. If you plan the day to avoid decision fatigue, it can be less stressful. This is not the same as overscheduling yourself on a day off! I mean plan your day off with what you want to happen, and leave some room for spontaneity.
I appreciate the extreme privilege that gives me choices – what to eat, where to travel, which gym class to attend. And I am grateful for those. I also know that choices don’t make us happier, as famously asserted by Barry Schwartz in Paradox of Choice and illustrated below.
Choices force you to make decisions, and continuous decision-making leads to decision fatigue. Apparently, we make about 35,000 decisions a day, from deciding how to respond to an email to choosing what to wear. It’s no wonder that I sometimes feel paralyzed by the choices on a long menu.
So, instead of beating myself up about it…”why can’t I just decide?”, I’m going to work on taking my own advice. Here’s to fewer decisions, and greater focus on the things that matter.
Sayu