decisions

I have been obsessed with decision-making recently.  From the minute we wake up each morning to the minute to go to sleep, we live our conscious lives making a series of decisions, some big and some very small.  Many of our decisions though are subconscious – we make them without even knowing it.  For example, when I decide to take a shower each morning, I am deciding to do so, even though it is so much a habit that I almost never even think about it.  But if, say, I wake up late for work one morning, I need to make a much more conscious decision about whether or not I have enough time. Our decisions seem to be on a spectrum of consciousness, where the more difficult the decision the more conscious we are that we are making it.

For example, every other day when my alarm sounds two hours early, I have to make the difficult and drowsy decision on whether or not I am going to get out of bed and hit the gym.  Hopefully I got to bed early enough the previous night to make this an easy decision that completely minimizes its consciousness.  Basically, the more I have to think about it, the harder it is going to be.  But alas, I often did not get to bed that early and the decision gets a lot harder.  I maybe need to snooze a couple times or put on a loud song or internally shame myself until my feet hit the cold floor.

It is those difficult decisions of commitment that intrigue me the most.  When and why do we decide that we are going to get up early four times a week to go to the gym?  And then how can we get ourselves to make the right decision once the alarm sounds?  One trick is working to minimize “decision fatigue,” or the exhaustion that comes with making too many decisions.  Many believe that making too many decisions within any given period of time can make each subsequent decision made worse, or more irrational.  This is why Mark Zuckerberg (and many other CEOs) wears the same standard outfit.  It is why many techies drink meal supplements like Soylent.  If we can remove conscious decision-making where we don’t need it in our lives we can re-focus our attention (and rationality) toward the decisions that actually matter.

So how can we do that?  One way is with routine.  Think about the gym example again.  If you just made your new year’s resolution to go to the gym three mornings a week, the first few weeks are going to be very tough.  Each morning will present a highly conscious and difficult decision.  You are going to exert a lot of mental energy just getting yourself out of bed.  That is energy probably better spent elsewhere.  But if you can stick with it and get into a routine, only a couple weeks later you will find yourself jumping out of bed at the sound of your alarm with your decision becoming almost subconscious.  You didn’t decide to get out of bed, you just did it.

The same concept can be used across any other resolution or life change.  Want to eat more healthfully?  Start eating salads a few times a week and in a few weeks it will be much easier to turn down those carbo-loaded lunches.  Want to be more social?  Force yourself to talk to a few new people at the next few networking events and eventually it will become second nature.   

Our second nature is the one we build over time by pushing ourselves outside our comfort zone and making difficult decisions over a sustained period of time.  It takes practice. It takes perseverance.  It takes a lot of mental energy.  But once we build that positive second nature we can devote our full attentions and energies to living rationally and making smarter and better decisions.

by Aryeh Carni