Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is to make default decisions so you can
Speaker 1: quickly navigate the problem of having too many choices. I
Speaker 1: know that having too many choices sounds like the definition
Speaker 1: of a first world problem. There are plenty of people
Speaker 1: out there whose lives are constrained by restrictions they didn't choose,
Speaker 1: and who struggle to meet their basic needs. But I'm
Speaker 1: guessing this is not the situation facing many listeners of
Speaker 1: this podcast. We often face the opposite problem. How do
Speaker 1: we navigate the myriad choices we encounter daily without feeling
Speaker 1: stressed or regretful about our decisions? Well, choice seems like
Speaker 1: a good thing, too much of it can take a toll.
Speaker 1: In his book The Paradox of Choice, psychologist Barry Schwartz
Speaker 1: explains that people can feel an at the prospect of
Speaker 1: making a choice and overwhelmed by all the options. Then
Speaker 1: we can feel regretful of decisions as we recall the
Speaker 1: options given up. This is all made worse because we
Speaker 1: feel responsible for the outcome, having made the choice ourselves.
Speaker 1: So what are we to do? Schwartz recommends choosing when
Speaker 1: to choose, as he puts it, rather than investing time
Speaker 1: and energy in every decision we face, figure out which
Speaker 1: ones weren't thoughtful deliberations. For everything else, go with a
Speaker 1: default option. And maybe this sounds challenging, but it turns
Speaker 1: out that if you are an upstanding citizen, you've probably
Speaker 1: already got default rules for a lot of things. Schwartz
Speaker 1: gives the example of wearing a seatbelt or not cheating
Speaker 1: on your partner. These are in fact choices, but there
Speaker 1: are good enough reasons not to seriously entertain the alternative
Speaker 1: that most of us don't spend a whole lot of
Speaker 1: time thinking about it. It turns out you can also
Speaker 1: make default decisions on many other things, even if the
Speaker 1: consequences aren't so dire, and lots of people have heard
Speaker 1: about the example of President Obama wearing only gray or
Speaker 1: blue suits. By eliminating insignificant choices, he could focus on
Speaker 1: more important things. If the situation called for it, he'd
Speaker 1: wear something else, but there had to be a good reason. Likewise,
Speaker 1: maybe you can set meal time defaults. Turkey, sausage and
Speaker 1: fruit for breakfast, a green vegetable and every lunch and
Speaker 1: dinner no alcohol during the week. It's also a good
Speaker 1: idea to have a good two restaurant or two for
Speaker 1: work lunches and dinners. When someone suggests meeting for a meal,
Speaker 1: you know exactly where to take the person and you
Speaker 1: know exactly what to order. Of course, if there's a
Speaker 1: reason to switch from the default, you can. If you're
Speaker 1: entertaining a vegetarian client, for instance, best to go to
Speaker 1: a restaurant with more than one veggie option. But having
Speaker 1: a default means you can focus on preparing for the
Speaker 1: meeting rather than choosing a restaurant, and you can focus
Speaker 1: on the meal time conversation rather than the menu. Like
Speaker 1: President Obama, you could also choose defaults for getting dressed.
Speaker 1: If you love fashion, that's wonderful. But for those of
Speaker 1: us who just want to look put together and socially appropriate,
Speaker 1: figure out what works and go with that. For a
Speaker 1: normal business entire workplace, for example, your default outfit might
Speaker 1: be a dress shirt, black pants, and black dress shoes.
Speaker 1: Your weekend daytime default might be a sweater, jeans, and
Speaker 1: slip on loafers or flats. You might only buy black
Speaker 1: leggings or running shorts so that you don't have to
Speaker 1: think about whether the color of your bottom half looks
Speaker 1: ridiculous with your exercise. Top defaults can help with your
Speaker 1: schedule too. If Friday night is always date night, you
Speaker 1: can have a babysitter who is scheduled every week, rather
Speaker 1: than having to find a babysitter each time you decide
Speaker 1: to go out. Indeed, you can have to faults for
Speaker 1: just about anything. I love this example from before Breakfast
Speaker 1: listener Jennifer. I work on a college campus with lots
Speaker 1: of parking lots. She writes, over the years, I have
Speaker 1: needlessly spent time walking around searching for my car at
Speaker 1: the end of the day. Last year, I decided to
Speaker 1: park in the same parking lot each and every day.
Speaker 1: This way, I don't forget where my car is parked,
Speaker 1: and I don't have to put a reminder in my
Speaker 1: phone or think of another way to remember where my
Speaker 1: car is that day. At the end of the day,
Speaker 1: I walk from wherever I am on campus to my
Speaker 1: car in my parking lot. It has taken one decision
Speaker 1: out of my list of daily decisions and has limited
Speaker 1: my aimless walking all over campus to find my car.
Speaker 1: What default decisions have you made? Are there areas of
Speaker 1: your life you might be able to streamline with a
Speaker 1: default decision, I'd love to hear about it. You can
Speaker 1: reach me at Before Breakfast podcast at iHeart media dot com.
Speaker 1: In the meantime, this is ura. Thanks for listening and
Speaker 1: here's to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody,
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from you. You can send me
Speaker 1: your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with
Speaker 1: me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod
Speaker 1: that's B the number four, then breakfast p o D.
Speaker 1: You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: podcast at i heeart media dot com. That Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: is spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much,
Speaker 1: should I look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast
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