HOW TO MAKE YOUR ROUTINE DECISIONS EASIER

"You'll see, I wear only gray or blue suits. I'm trying to pare down decisions. I don't want to make decisions about what I'm eating or wearing because I have too many other decisions to make." - President Obama to Vanity Fair

Are you the kind of person that procrastinates when it comes to decision making or are you naturally decisive?

As pharmacists, we are programmed to triple-source everything which sometimes makes decision making an ordeal. Clinically, we should do this and it definitely makes sense to have all the information going into a decision or a big purchase, but there is a fine line between being well informed and just indecisive. Indecisive people have all of the information in front of them, but are unable to pull the trigger.

Being decisive is something that I struggle with. It took me being in a leadership position at a medical center to push myself, develop confidence, and break the habit of indecisiveness.

Sidenote: I grew up in a household with a pretty straightforward list of "do's" and "don'ts". What was expected of me was black and white and I didn't have many opportunities to exercise the decision making muscle very much. Even my clothes were decided for me - and I'm not talking about wanting to wear inappropriate clothes to school - the church that I grew up in had very conservative views on what a woman should and should not wear.
My point here is that even basic things were decided for me so I entered the adult world pretty indecisive because I hadn't had to make a lot of decisions for myself in the past. When I took a leadership position at an academic medical center, I had to learn to be decisive and timely with my actions.

In the Vanity Fair article discussed above, the Commander in Chief explained that the act of making a decision erodes your ability to make future decisions. Psychologists call this decision fatigue.

Decision fatigue refers to the deteriorating quality of decisions made by an individual after a long session of sections making. This may be why judges give harsher rulings later in the day and grocery shopping or choosing to go to the gym after a hard day can be exhausting.

Save your energy for the big decisions.
f you spend all of your energy deciding what you are going to wear in the morning or eat for lunch, it uses up valuable discipline for future decisions. You will be more productive in the log run if you can streamline the routine day to day decisions in your life.

Get organized
Mornings shouldn't be a chaotic rush; prepare the night before either by taking your shower, laying out your clothes, or packing your lunch.

Have a uniform
Either wear the same palette every day or the same convo (skirt/blouse/cardigan etc.....). This doesn't have to be boring! Just trying to stick with a basic silhouette. And if you can't do that, then pick out your clothes the evening before.
Think about Karl Lagerfield, Vera Wang, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, etc....

"Always" do something
If you always go to the gym on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7:00am, it will be easier to stick to the schedule and just go if you've made it part of your routine.

Simplify, simplify, simplify
Read Marie Kondo's The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up if you need more persuading.