Hi.
I’m Lorie Marrero, creator of The Clutter Diet Book and on-line program, and we’ve
heard from many of our members and course participants that they are very tired at the
end of their organizing sessions and there is a great reason for that.
There’s a growing body of research that shows that decision fatigue is a real issue.
You know, being organized is a lot about being decisive and if you think about it, all the
clutter that you see out on your counter or on your desk represents delayed decisions
or delayed actions.
In that way, clutter is actually manifested procrastination.
So think about that for a minute.
The research is showing that the more decisions we have to make in a day the more our will
power is decreased and the more our energy is drained so that it has results, like impulse
shopping.
That’s why they put impulse items at the checkout.
After you’ve been wandering around the store making decisions for 30 minutes, you’re
less likely to be able to resist that chocolate bar when you see it when you’re checking
out.
Also as we all know it’s harder to stick to something like a diet or any other habit
change that you’re trying to make in your life when you’re at the end of the day and
your will power has waned.
That is a real issue.
Also decision fatigue can cause you to avoid everything altogether and just procrastinate
some more.
They say that a confused mind says “no.”
So think about how you could reduce the number of decisions you have to make in your life
so you can free up energy for other things you want to think about.
Here are some ideas of how to do this.
First, you need to think about making rules and policies for yourself so that the decision
is made once and you don’t ever have to make that decision again.
A great example is a rotation menu.
It’s really easy to do for breakfast.
You can say, “Monday is oatmeal day, Tuesday is scrambled egg day, Friday is pancake day,”
and you always know that Friday is pancake day.
So you know exactly what to do when you get up; there is no decision to make.
You can apply this to lunches that you might pack for school or work, and you can even
do a whole 30-day rotation menu (POP) for dinners.
Imagine, you’re not even going to repeat one dinner in a while month’s time, so your
family won’t even notice, but you will know.
You’ve already got your next 30 days planned right out.
It makes it easier for you to create your grocery list this way and that’s another
way to reduce your decision making, having a standard grocery list.
So you can have one that you either print out with your frequently purchased items,
or you can get an app and have your favorites list on the app.
So there’s another way you can do it.
Charity donations are something else.
You can have ultimate clarity about exactly what charities you’re going to support,
one or two, for a year and you can decide a budget for that amount that you’re going
to give.
Then when you get approached by other charities wanting $50 here or $25 there, you can say,
“No.”
“We focus our giving (POP) in this one area and we already have made that decision, so
the answer is no.”
It makes it very easy for you.
Another area people use these kinds of policies with is when they are picking out their clothes
for work or for their children for school.
You know, having kids with a school uniform is wonderful and this is why.
It’s reducing your decision fatigue.
You know, President Obama was famously interviewed in Vanity Fair where he talked about decision
fatigue and he said he only wears blue or gray suits.
(POP) He doesn’t order food off a menu, he has people bring him something so he doesn’t
have to decide that.
His entire job is deciding, so he must free up his decision making energy for the most
important things.
Also you can think about this for travel.
You might have a packing list to help you decide what to take so you don’t have to
make that up out of thin air every time.
I’m sure you can think of lots of other ways that you can make your decisions in advance
and have them made for the rest of the time and not have to have this decision fatigue
plaguing you and weighing you down.
We’d love to hear in the comments what (POP) your little policies and rules are that help
you prevent decision fatigue, and if you are having a problem making decisions with your
organizing projects, we definitely can help you with that.
We do it every single day in our on-line program.
You can get help directly from our experts at a very affordable price.
Check us out at clutterdiet.com/learnmore.
See you next time, and may you always be happy and grateful for having more than enough.