You’re probably beginning to see a theme.
If you follow our Podcast, Coach’s Corner, or this Blog you’ll notice that we’ve been talking an awful lot about habit and behavior modification. This shift in focus happened at about the 10,000 training hour mark at The Hill; when we started to track archetypes of success.
Any discussion of behavior modification wouldn’t be complete without addressing Decision Fatigue, or “the deteriorating quality of decisions made by an individual, after a long session of decision making.”
A long session of decision making
I think we can all relate with this. Let’s think about the decisions I make before I leave the house in the morning:
- Hit snooze or jump out of bed
- Brush my teeth before or after coffee
- Cold enough for sweatpants?
- Should I eat breakfast at home or at work?
- How many ounces of oatmeal is that?
- Honey, do we have plans this weekend?
- When’s my first call?
- Where are my shoes?
What can I put on auto-pilot?
When I do coaching with other business owners, we talk a lot about systems. Systems and protocol put low-value activities and decisions on auto-pilot so the entrepreneur can begin to move on to higher-level decisions. Not only to make those decisions, but make sound decisions.
Look at your day. I know…we’re all busy. But really take a look. What are the areas you can put on auto-pilot? Food and nutrition decisions are huge areas we can all automate. So are dress and fashion. I’m not saying you need to wear a black turtle neck everyday – but you can easily systemize tops/bottoms into corresponding sections in your closet.
You don’t need to go full Steve Jobs today. But, let’s just look at your morning routine. Where can you automate to save up some sound decision-making for high-value items such as career, health, and relationships?