NextGen Know-How: How having too many choices ruins your productivity
Plus, four simple habits you can practice to increase your clarity and focus instead of getting overwhelmed
You’d think having a lot of choices would be the optimal situation. In the Washington, D.C., area, there are hundreds of restaurants to choose from. My husband and I struggled to narrow down all the options and settle on one while planning for a recent date night. After several days of scrolling through the choices, we finally decided to just go to a restaurant we usually go to. Having so many choices can be a luxury, but it can also cause mental fatigue and result in wasted time and energy.
A research study was conducted by psychologists from Stanford and Columbia Universities in which a tasting display of jams was set up in an upscale food market. The purpose of the study was to determine if the number of choices impacted consumer purchasing behavior. On one day, the display offered six types of jams to taste test. On another day, the display offered 24 choices of jam flavors to taste. Although more people visited the display with 24 choices of jam, those who encountered the display with only six choices of jams were 10 times more likely to purchase jam after the taste test. The researchers concluded that when faced with extensive choices, people lose motivation to buy. This is called choice paralysis. We often become so overwhelmed by all the options that we avoid making a choice altogether.
If you’ve ever eaten in a diner, you are familiar with this experience—flipping through a menu where breakfast, lunch and dinner are always available with pages and pages of choices (not to mention the dessert counter with every cake you can imagine!) Replacing an appliance can take more time than doing your taxes as you grapple with narrowing down the hundreds of options to the one that best fits your needs. Or perhaps every morning when you look at your to-do list, you are so overwhelmed by what you have on your plate that you avoid getting started (and instead find yourself piddling the time away by scrolling through email or checking your bank account). Even getting dressed in the morning can take a lot of energy. Some successful leaders like Richard Branson wear the same thing every day to reduce decision fatigue and make their mornings easier and less stressful.
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