I pressed my nose against the glass, trying to make out the blurred text, and doing my best to translate the Dutch, that didn’t really mean anything to me.
My teeth chattered together in the cold, and I rubbed my hands in an attempt to get the blood back into them.
“Shit.”
The feeling hit me all of a sudden, and my heart sunk as I realised something ….
I’d stood in this same spot exactly an hour before.
I had well and truly come down with a nasty case of decision overwhelm.
The above was what happened to me on my trip to Amsterdam just under 2 years ago.
I’d headed out from my hotel about 7:30 with the intention of grabbing a bite to eat, while browsing a book and taking in some city sights.
What actually happened though, was that I did indeed set out at half past seven, yet didn’t get myself into a restaurant until 9.
It wasn’t that there was nowhere to eat, or nothing that I fancied, it was purely that I didn’t have a plan. There were lots of places that looked pretty good, serving food that I’d enjoy (and that was obviously macro-friendly!) but I simply could not make up my mind.
Ergo, I wandered around aimlessly for well over an hour, getting incredibly stressed, and frustrated at my indecision, before deciding on somewhere just yards from my hotel, that I’d past in the first 2 minutes of my travel, and had been so close to going in to all that time ago.
This is what I call “Decision Overwhelm.”
I’d always known that I could be a bit of a procrastinator, yet couldn’t work out why, sometimes, despite the face there was a lot of choice available, I was unable to make a quick decision.
Then, last week, I was out for a walk, listening to a Tim Ferriss podcast – http://fourhourworkweek.com/2014/12/23/4-hour-work-week-2015/ – when he described this beautifully, and I realised what my problem was.
I was trying to make too many decisions.
Every decision we make takes effort.
It doesn’t matter whether it initially appears to be fairly straightforward – such as deciding what tee shirt to wear, or picking something to watch on TV, or more complex – “Should I quit my job?” for instance.
Clearly, some decisions require more thought than others, but everything takes some thinking.
Each decision takes “points.”
You have a daily decision budget, made up of points.
Say you start the day with 100 points – the tee-shirt decision for instance, might take 5 “points” as it requires no more than 10-seconds of thinking time, and really doesn’t have a great impact on your day.
The job decision though – that’s probably a 99-pointer, and it’s unlikely you’ll even decide it in a day.
But think about your average movements.
Even on a regular day, you might have to decide –
– What to wear in the morning
– Whether to go for cereals or toast for breakfast
– Get the bus or walk to work?
– Say “hi” to your boss to engage in conversation, or try to avoid him in the hope he doesn’t pile more work on to you.
That’s a good 25 points worth of decisions by 9:30am.
Factor in lunch, your mid-afternoon procrastination, exercise selection at the gym, deciding what to eat for dinner, what to watch on TV, and whether you hang out with friends or crash and get an early night ….. Say hello to a well and truly exhausted decision budget.
And that’s without any unexpected big decisions you have to make.
It’s no wonder many of us feel overwhelmed.
And when we’re overwhelmed, we tend to make crap decisions.
—–
This is a big one I find with clients.
We’ll be training one morning, and I’ll enquire about their diet, to which I’ll often get the following response –
“On the whole, it’s going well, but I’ve got a real issue – eating in the evening.
I still have my oats and shake for breakfast, I love my lunchtime salads, and if I need something in the afternoon, those protein bars are perfect. Most evenings I cook for the family and we have something healthy, but if I’ve had a tough day, I just can’t stop myself getting a pizza or fried chicken instead.
And then it’s a downward spiral – I’ll sit there watching TV just snacking on junk that I KNOW I shouldn’t eat, and then just regret it afterwards.
I’m perfect 90% of the time, but that other 10% is really getting me down.”
This is a classic case of decision overwhelm.
My client has used up their whole budget, and so can’t make informed, sensible choices that they know, deep down in their heart of hearts, would be the better ones to make.
So how can we crack decision overwhelm?
It’s actually incredibly simple.
The trick is to make as many things as possible autonomous, completely removing the decision process.
Does anybody really care what you wear to the office?
Sure, I understand “power dressing” and wanting to look dapper, but does your outfit genuinely require 20-minutes of planning?
Get yourself a Monday t-shirt or shirt, and trousers/jeans/pants/skirt/whatever you wear on your lower half, and a Monday pair of shoes. Do the same for Tuesday, Wednesday and so on.
This way, you’re at least varying your wardrobe, but you’re not spending any decision points on your daily outfits.
If you buy something new, buy it as your Wednesday t-shirt, or your Friday socks, for instance, and chuck out what it’s replacing.
I hired Layne Norton to take all the stress and thought out of my training.
And it’s wonderful.
I no longer have to think about exercise selection, sets, reps and loads – everything I’m supposed to do is on a spreadsheet, and I just go into the gym and complete it.
I highly recommend hiring a coach to plan everything for you, or at least getting on a fixed routine. I’ve got a couple here if you want to try out autonomous training –
Daily Undulating Periodisation (DUP) – http://www.weighttraining.com/workout-plans/mikehlhl-the-hlhl-intro-to-dup
Strength/ Hypertrophy Hybrid – http://www.weighttraining.com/workout-plans/mikehlhl-the-hlhl-strength-hyper-hybrid
In the morning, you really don’t want to have to think.
That’s why making every morning the same is crucial.
Set your alarm for the same time each day (and GET UP as soon as it goes off.)
Have your schedule – shower, shave, make up, dress – whatever you have to do, followed by coffee and breakfast, gym – it doesn’t matter what or how you do things, just aim to stick to the same routine 95% of the time.
While I’m not a fan of rigid, strict dieting, I think eating the same breakfast every morning has its benefits too.
You can vary this at the weekend if you see fit, but personally, I’d still keep things more or less the same as the week.
Okay, so by pre-planning you still have to make choices as to what you eat, but at least knowing in your head what and when you’re going to eat ahead of time makes the decision easier.
I’d definitely do this when it comes to eating out, and choosing what to eat at restaurants, especially if you’re dieting.
It’s also for this reason, this I personally only ever have two options at most meals that I switch between.
Breakfast is a shake or yoghurt, lunch is a salad or an omelette and my afternoon snack is a protein bar or some cooked meat. I do vary these, but in reality, the only meals I have that change from day to day are my evening meal, and my pre-bed “macro-topper.”
Go with your hunch.
Most of the time it will be right, and when it’s not – lesson learned.
This is what a lot of it comes down to.
Let’s face it, we’re rarely faced with anything so potentially life changing or catastrophic that a wrong decision ends in complete and utter tragedy at turmoil.
Learn to say “yes” to the things you want to do, and “no” to more things that you don’t.
Obviously there are caveats – certain things you don’t really want to do that might need to be done, but provided it doesn’t jeopardise your career, your relationship, your health or grossly upset those close to you, try saying no a bit more.
By doing this, you’re not becoming a robot; you’re simply clearing any unnecessary, unwanted stress over decisions that don’t really matter from your mind.
This frees up more space for the stuff that really counts –
– Cookie dough or peanut butter crunch ice cream?
– To add bacon to your burger or not?
– Whether to order coffee or water.
(For those wondering, the answers are – PB, yes, and coffee – always coffee.)
By making fewer decisions, you make better ones, increase productivity and have more fun.
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