One of the best things about living in Bloomington-Normal is the diversity of restaurant choices we have to choose from. Want one of the big chains? We've probably got it. Nice local restaurants? Yup. Italian, Chinese, American, Thai, and Indian places? Check.
Ironically, one of the worst things about living in Bloomington-Normal is, you guessed it, the diversity of restaurant choices we have to choose from.
This is probably the thing my wife and I argue about the most. Granted, the fact that this is the worst of our marriage tells you we have a pretty healthy marriage, but still. Trying to figure out where we're going to eat is always an affair. We pretty much never agree what we want on the same night.
(Quick disclaimer before going further: I'm writing this from the hospital since my super cute angel of a baby, Emma Allison Hundley, was just born last night, so I can't remember my sources for the info below. You'll just have to trust that what I share is real. Sorry!)
What you may not realize is that our brains don't handle decision making all that well, so we tend to make poorer choices if we follow up choice after choice in a relatively short time period. A great example of this is a study done on judges. The study showed that the verdicts handed out by judges were relatively worse later on in a single day. Likewise, it's no surprise my wife and I always argue about dinner: we're trying to hash out a decision after a full day of work when we've depleted our brain power.
So, how do we combat decision fatigue? Check out the five tips below to help you out.
1. Automate as much as you can. Think about the little things you do every day: where you set your keys, what workouts you do, what you eat for lunch. You may notice a trend in some of these areas. If so, automate the heck out of it. Put your keys in the exact same place every time you get home. Work out at the same time every day. It might seem like a little thing, but like with anything, the little stuff adds up!
2. Divert some decision making to "lighter load" time periods. My wife and I could definitely take a dose of my own medicine here. This idea is taking some time out on a Saturday or Sunday and hashing out decisions you know you'll have to make for the coming week. So instead of waiting until minutes before eating dinner each night to decide what we'll eat, we could do a better job a pre-planning what / where we'll eat. I'm a little better about this with other aspects, like pre-planning what I'll wear to work each day for the week ahead.
3. Commit and don't look back. A study was done once between two groups of people. Group A was given a choice to pick one piece of art from a group of 30 pieces and was not allowed to switch out that piece of art at all. Group B, on the other hand, was allowed to swap out their piece of art for another piece of art whenever they wanted. What did the researchers find at the end of the study? The members of Group A were much more satisfied overall than the folks of Group B. This is because they committed and were happy with the commitment they made.
4. Learn to say no to certain things. I'm lifting this piece of advice from Seth Godin. (Hey, I finally remembered a source!) This tip is all about learning your limitations. With Seth, he knows he can't possibly good at blogging and Twitter simultaneously, so he does not pour any time or energy into Twitter at all. Likewise, I made the same decision about having a graphic design business. It's definitely not been a regret at all.
5. Avoid environments saturated with impulse decisions at the end of a work day. If that wording is a little confusing, let me illustrate with a quick example. If you've been to IKEA, you know how big their maze-like stores are. After winding your way through the higher priced furniture and arguing with your spouse about what to get, IKEA nickel-and-dimes you in two subtle ways. They put all the lower priced stuff (like kitchen utensils) at the end, and then they tempt you further with $1 hot dogs. There's no study on this, but I'd be really interested to see what would happen if IKEA reversed this order. Clearly, your mind is so burnt out toward the end that the lower-priced items quickly become impulse purchases. Likewise, you're more apt to spend more at something like a Target after a work day. Simple tip: just avoid those places.
Ironically, one of the worst things about living in Bloomington-Normal is, you guessed it, the diversity of restaurant choices we have to choose from.
This is probably the thing my wife and I argue about the most. Granted, the fact that this is the worst of our marriage tells you we have a pretty healthy marriage, but still. Trying to figure out where we're going to eat is always an affair. We pretty much never agree what we want on the same night.
(Quick disclaimer before going further: I'm writing this from the hospital since my super cute angel of a baby, Emma Allison Hundley, was just born last night, so I can't remember my sources for the info below. You'll just have to trust that what I share is real. Sorry!)
What you may not realize is that our brains don't handle decision making all that well, so we tend to make poorer choices if we follow up choice after choice in a relatively short time period. A great example of this is a study done on judges. The study showed that the verdicts handed out by judges were relatively worse later on in a single day. Likewise, it's no surprise my wife and I always argue about dinner: we're trying to hash out a decision after a full day of work when we've depleted our brain power.
So, how do we combat decision fatigue? Check out the five tips below to help you out.
1. Automate as much as you can. Think about the little things you do every day: where you set your keys, what workouts you do, what you eat for lunch. You may notice a trend in some of these areas. If so, automate the heck out of it. Put your keys in the exact same place every time you get home. Work out at the same time every day. It might seem like a little thing, but like with anything, the little stuff adds up!
2. Divert some decision making to "lighter load" time periods. My wife and I could definitely take a dose of my own medicine here. This idea is taking some time out on a Saturday or Sunday and hashing out decisions you know you'll have to make for the coming week. So instead of waiting until minutes before eating dinner each night to decide what we'll eat, we could do a better job a pre-planning what / where we'll eat. I'm a little better about this with other aspects, like pre-planning what I'll wear to work each day for the week ahead.
3. Commit and don't look back. A study was done once between two groups of people. Group A was given a choice to pick one piece of art from a group of 30 pieces and was not allowed to switch out that piece of art at all. Group B, on the other hand, was allowed to swap out their piece of art for another piece of art whenever they wanted. What did the researchers find at the end of the study? The members of Group A were much more satisfied overall than the folks of Group B. This is because they committed and were happy with the commitment they made.
4. Learn to say no to certain things. I'm lifting this piece of advice from Seth Godin. (Hey, I finally remembered a source!) This tip is all about learning your limitations. With Seth, he knows he can't possibly good at blogging and Twitter simultaneously, so he does not pour any time or energy into Twitter at all. Likewise, I made the same decision about having a graphic design business. It's definitely not been a regret at all.
5. Avoid environments saturated with impulse decisions at the end of a work day. If that wording is a little confusing, let me illustrate with a quick example. If you've been to IKEA, you know how big their maze-like stores are. After winding your way through the higher priced furniture and arguing with your spouse about what to get, IKEA nickel-and-dimes you in two subtle ways. They put all the lower priced stuff (like kitchen utensils) at the end, and then they tempt you further with $1 hot dogs. There's no study on this, but I'd be really interested to see what would happen if IKEA reversed this order. Clearly, your mind is so burnt out toward the end that the lower-priced items quickly become impulse purchases. Likewise, you're more apt to spend more at something like a Target after a work day. Simple tip: just avoid those places.
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