Choice Optimization
Eliminate unnecessary choices to optimize your decision making and apply maximum brain power where it’s needed most.
Let’s talk about choices today. Did you hit snooze this morning? Before you tapped that button was there a mental battle waged in your head? This tug of war between warm sheets and starting your day is the first of thousands of choices you will make today. Each choice you make drains you of your superpower, your ability to make important decisions. Some estimates state we make upwards of 35,000 choices per day. Regardless of the accuracy of that number, on a daily basis we all make A LOT of choices. As our day progresses and the choices stack up, we experience decision fatigue. Imagine being asked, at the end of a stressful day, what flavor ice cream you want and you’re so exhausted you can only respond “ice cream.” That’s decision fatigue! You have your own unique set of skills where your brainpower is most effective. For some it’s product or content development, for others it’s leading teams or spreadsheets. I’d like to help you develop a few systems to optimize your decision making powers such that you can apply maximum energy where it's most effective and reduce unneeded decisions.
Let’s start by thinking about where you want to focus your decision making power. As a starting place, think about the following three areas of your life:
Impact Decisions: These are choices you make throughout the day that have the greatest impact. Impact decisions can be family or work related but should be where you devote maximum brain power. Impact decisions involve longer term thinking and will be more complex than that snooze button you wrestled with this morning.
Values Decisions: “Life is a matter of choices, and every choice you make makes you.” - Author John C. Maxwell. Values decisions are made up of the choices that define who you are as an individual. Are you the person who chooses the salad over the fries, invests for the long term over the short term, and schedules regular workouts? Values decisions are your opportunity to choose to be the person you want to be. Decision fatigue can blur your true north and make you more susceptible to social pressures. Reducing the number of choices you face each day will help keep your values decisions true to your values!
Passion Decisions: Decisions you want to spend time on that bring you joy, fulfillment, and satisfaction. For example, music lessons, spending time to improve your bike skills, or planning trips with your family. Passion decisions are just as important as value and impact decisions and should not be cast to the wayside!
Once you know where you want to focus your energy, you can actively eliminate or reduce superfluous choices that drain your decision making power. Decisions you make on a daily basis can be simplified by making the same decision every day, or most days. Breakfast is a prime example: Find 1-3 breakfasts that you like and that keep you satisfied for at least 3-5 hrs, and then you’re done. You’ve limited your choices, simplified your morning and avoided wasting precious brain power.
I encourage you to pay attention to your decisions for one full day. Write them down. Then create systems to reduce or eliminate them. Below are a few examples from myself and my clients:
Sleep Routine: I function best when I get a certain amount of sleep. To maximize my efficiency, I go to bed and get up at the same times every day. There’s no decision that needs to be made: no “snooze option.”
Eating: My client, a school principal, makes 10 burritos every two weeks. Each morning he pulls one out from the freezer for lunch. He adds variety with a different piece of fruit each day.
Exercise: My client, a local doctor, follows my buildSOLO plan. He made the comment once, “I love that I just go to the gym and don’t have to think. I do the workout, I know I’m getting stronger and can then focus on my day.” As a doctor he needs to spend his brain power making important decisions on diagnoses and problem solving, not determining rep schemes for barbell rows and deadlifts.
Attire: My client, a venture capitalist, wears all black when she travels. She buys classic styles that easily mix and match and don’t go out of fashion. This frees up her brain power for the more important decisions she must make each day, such as which companies to invest in.
Each of us have areas where we could benefit from having a system. For example, I like to think about food, and take the time to experiment and prepare meals. My wife, Michelle, is the opposite. As a veterinarian, she spends her day making decisions from dental extractions, client communication, and surgeries. I used to ask her what she wanted for dinner and she’d give me an eyes glazed over look. We’ve developed a simple system where instead of an open ended question I provide her with two options. Limiting the choices makes both our lives much better!
Think about the areas of your life where you can streamline your decision making process in order to maximize your brain power for Impact, Values, and Passion decisions. Eliminate or reduce regular choices you make by developing systems or routines such as my examples above. This will allow you to optimize your brain power for where you need it most. I’d love to hear about systems or routines you’ve developed to streamline your decision making process, as well as new systems you want to implement!