The problem with choices

Last night I lay awake thinking about all of the decisions I had to make. Should I hire a running coach? Do I want to jump into another big trip? What do I really want in a gym? Should I return that shirt? What am I going to wear the rest of the week?

It dawned on me that I was starting to stress myself out. Over mostly trivial things that have been weighing on my mind for days or weeks.

And I’m not the only one. A recent article in The Guardian decried the amount of choice we face daily. From 28 different ketchups on the grocery store shelf to retirement plans, there are too many options. We frequently end up paralyzed, and when we do make a decision, we are much less satisfied with it than if we had hardly any choice at all according to the article.

I’m a fan of “keeping my options open” and “seeing what’s out there,” but at some point there are too many things out there.

I wonder how much time we spend in the grocery store staring at ketchup trying to just choose one. Or which gas station to go to. What to have for lunch. What to read next. Or what we really want.

Decision fatigue is real. From a self-designed uniform to President Obama not choosing what he wears or eats, we are willing to go to extremes to try to avoid it. I constantly joke at work that I suffer from decision fatigue in the afternoons, but it’s painfully true.

So how am I going to fix it? Stop overthinking things. Sometimes a decision is better than no decision. I am also going to make a conscious effort to not re-assess my decisions. Once it’s made, it’s done. Mornings when no one else is in the office is when I do my best thinking and decision making. I’m fresh and ready to go, which means I need to take advantage of this time to make big decisions, not to decide what I want to eat or what I should read next. I have also been cutting the clutter out of my life so I’m not sorting through clothes that don’t fit when I’m trying to decide what to wear. Or food I don’t like or isn’t good for me.

Every choice I can cut out is one less thing to stress about and one more decision I have brain power for later.