Actively identify and eliminate sources of stress in your life, as chronic stress can contribute to physical health issues and exacerbations of conditions, leading to overall improved well-being.
Adopt ‘Project 333’ by selecting just 33 items (including clothes, jewelry, accessories, and shoes, but excluding underwear, sleepwear, and workout clothes) to wear for three months. Box up the rest to reduce stress, save time, and foster creativity in other life areas.
Emulate Barack Obama by reducing trivial daily choices, such as wearing a repetitive wardrobe, to conserve mental energy and focus on more important decisions.
Reduce daily decision overload by implementing small strategies, such as eating the exact same breakfast every morning, to free up mental energy for more significant choices throughout the day.
Challenge the societal belief that ‘more is always the answer’ for happiness, and instead, explore the benefits of less choosing and less doing, as it can lead to greater personal contentment and well-being.
Proactively seek out and apply personal strategies to reduce the number of choices you face in various aspects of your daily life, whenever and wherever possible, to combat decision fatigue and increase well-being.
Actively question your mind’s constant suggestions about what will make you happy, as these intuitions about choice can often be wrong and lead to less satisfaction. Understanding the science of the mind can help redirect you towards true happiness.
Actively challenge the common intuition that more choice is always better, as this belief can contribute to increased stress, depression, and the need for mental health support.
Avoid excessive comparison among many options, as it can lead to feeling less satisfied with your chosen item, even if it was a good decision, due to imagining rejected alternatives.
Understand that simply being exposed to many choices is cognitively draining, leading to decision fatigue and potentially worse decisions later on.
Be aware that even making many trivial hypothetical decisions can be exhausting and deplete self-control, making you give up more easily on subsequent challenging tasks.
Recognize that offering too many options for important decisions, such as 401k plans, can lead to paralysis and inaction, causing people to miss out on significant benefits. Seek ways to simplify or get guidance.
Recognize and assert your right as a patient to have a bigger role in medical decisions, especially those with moral implications, and to be fully informed about treatments, rather than solely relying on the doctor’s judgment.
When faced with medical treatment options, actively demand to know the full pros and cons, including specific risks and rewards, as doctors may not always volunteer this crucial information, expecting patients to simply accept standard protocols.
Before any medical procedure, proactively discuss potential ‘branch points’ or contingent decisions with your doctor, such as what to do if unexpected findings occur during surgery, to avoid making critical choices under duress.
When receiving medical information, be proactive in seeking clarification and ensuring your understanding, as doctors often struggle with how much and how best to provide information, and rarely assess patient comprehension effectively.
To navigate overwhelming choices, such as in a supermarket, rely on familiar selections (e.g., buying the same 95% of items weekly) to avoid cognitive overload and decision paralysis.
To avoid decision overload at restaurants with large menus, wait for others at your table to order, then choose from their selections, effectively reducing your personal choice set to a more manageable number.
Help friends reduce their own choice overload by offering specific recommendations, such as suggesting a particular podcast, rather than leaving them to navigate an overwhelming number of options.
When presenting options to customers, offer fewer choices (e.g., six jams instead of 24) as this paradoxically leads to significantly more purchases, rather than overwhelming customers into paralysis.
For businesses or creators, limiting options and sticking to what you do best can lead to a better product and make it easier for both the provider and the customer, as seen with Louie’s Lunch.
Businesses should be aware that the negative impact of offering too many options, such as customers buying less, is often invisible and not easily quantifiable, making it hard to recognize the price being paid.