How Being a Minimalist Can Help
You Make Better Decisions in Life
Do you
eat a healthy diet? Do you exercise? If you do, your purpose is probably to
look and feel good.
But how
about decision making? Have you considered its impact on your mental health?
You may be unaware of this, be we make an
estimated 10,000 to 40,000 decisions every day.1It’s no
wonder that something called ‘decision fatigue’ can rapidly set in!
Luckily, there are a number of rules that you
can follow to streamline your decision making. These rules will help you reduce
(or even eliminate) decision fatigue, and instead, free your mind to work on
your personal goals and objectives.
Before I lift the lid on these rules, I want
to first explain more about decision fatigue and its impact on your thought
processes.
When Your Brain Is Tired, You’re More Likely
to Make Poor Decisions
Jean Twenge, a psychology professor at San
Diego State University, states that the brain calls upon “a common resource
akin to energy or strength” when it’s required to make decisions.2According
to Twenge’s research, besieging your brain with relentless decisions, leads to
a rapid depletion of the brain’s energy. In turn, this leads to poor decision
making.
Jean Twenge is not alone in this discovery. A
2010 study published in Psychological Science found a link between blood
glucose levels (the body’s energy) and the ability to make shrewd decisions.3 Higher
blood glucose levels were found to be associated with superior decision making.
It’s clear from these studies, that decision
fatigue negatively impacts your ability to make good choices.
Let’s turn now to what you can do to say
goodbye to decision fatigue.
Steve Jobs Is a Solid Proof That Being a
Minimalist Can Improve Your Decision Making
Conserving your mental energy is the secret
key to regular, top-class decision making.
What’s the best way to sustain your mental
energy? To embrace minimalism.
Steve Jobs, Apple’s co-founder, was a devoted
minimalist. His enthusiasm for this philosophy extended from his house
(described as having virtually no furniture in it), to his simplistic product
designs (such as the iPad and iPhone). He also practised Zen meditation, so
fully understood the need for quietness, space and detachment. (Qualities that
all help in developing mental clarity.)
John Sculley, former CEO of Apple, said:
“What makes Steve’s methodology different from everyone else’s is that he
always believed the most important decisions you make are not the things you do
– but the things that you decide not to do. He’s a minimalist.”
And Steve Jobs is not the only great decision
maker practicing minimalism. Other examples include: billionaire Michael
Bloomberg, actor Robert Pattinson, and artist Agnes Martin.
How to Save Your Mental Energy for Being a
Good Decision Maker
As you would expect, the rules for living a
minimalist life are simple. Let’s check some of them out now.
Discover the patterns behind how you do
things
Most of us live our lives dictated by habits.
We get up at the same time, eat the same breakfast, take the same journey to
work, etc. While good habits can help simplify our lives, bad habits can cause
us lost time, stress and unnecessary work. For instance, if you have a habit of
checking your work emails first thing in a morning, you may lose your most
productive time to simply reading through and deleting mostly useless
information. Instead, make a habit to do your important work first, while your
mind and energy are still fresh.
Observe what situations make you anxious (and
learn how to handle them)
The road to a minimalist life involves some
soul searching. This includes paying attention to situations that cause you
stress or anxiety. Let’s say that you have a fear of public speaking. You’re asked
to do a talk to the directors of your company. While you know your subject
matter well, you allow yourself to become massively stressed out by just
thinking about the presentation. You need to address these types of scenarios
head on. Learn to minimize their impact on you by developing your ability to
relax or detach from them. If you can’t do this, you may be best trying to
avoid the situations completely (if this is possible). Stress and anxiety
disrupt your thought processes – and your ability to make decisions.
Focus on tasks that help you finish things
Where are you putting most of your efforts?
Is it on things that aren’t contributing to the attainment of your goals?
Minimalists know that where they put their energy – is where they want to see
results. You should do this too. For instance, if you want your garden to look
tidy, watch fewer gardening programs – and instead, get outside and cut the
grass and weed the soil. This applies to decisions too. Don’t spend days
thinking of a decision that will have little impact on your life. Prioritize
important, life-impacting decisions.
Declutter your desk, home and mind
Removing unnecessary things from your
environment, or unneeded thoughts from your mind, is the first step in
transitioning to a minimalist lifestyle. For example, if your office desk is
full of scattered papers, get rid of them. This may mean tidying them away in a
drawer, or recycling them if not needed. This one simple action will give you
more physical space – and more mental space too. The benefits? You’ll be able
to make clearer decisions and choices.
Reduce the amount of electronic notifications
you receive
If you’re like most people (especially those
from the younger generations), you’re likely to be receiving relentless
notifications via social media, email and SMS. These non-stop notifications are
rarely of value. Instead, they act as a giant distraction iceberg. Be ruthless,
and switch off as many of these notifications as possible. By doing this,
you’ll keep your mind free from distractions, and primed to make great
decisions.
Choose items that are versatile
Have you noticed how some people need a
different item for every task? At work, they have a personal cellphone for
personal calls, a work cellphone for work calls, a personal laptop for personal
use, and a work laptop for work use! They are charging, carrying and operating
four devices, when they could probably reduce this down to just two. For
example, many companies now operate a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy. This
enables you to do all your work (personal and business) on your own laptop. By
having items that are versatile, you’ll spend less money – and less time
choosing which items to use.
Break free from toxic relationships
There’s no greater energy thief than toxic relationships.
They can leave you feeling drained and depressed. If you have a way to step
aside from these relationships, then do it. You’ll get back your energy and
positivity. Both things that are crucial for making first-rate decisions.
By adopting a minimalist approach to life,
you’ll conserve your physical and mental energy. This will allow you to defeat
mental fatigue, and help your decision making become the best it can be.
Be productive. Be progressive. Be minimalist.
http://www.lifehack.org/599704/how-being-a-minimalist-can-help-you-make-better-decisions-in-life?ref=mail&mtype=daily_newsletter&mid=20170608_tuning_v1&uid=687414&hash=707e797f7e757e6d794c856d747b7b3a6f7b79&action=click
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