Eliminate Your Options

Zuckerberg knows how to make decisions easier (sometimes)

It’s difficult to make decisions when we have so many options because we have to consider what may happen in every possible scenario. Even if we know that every option will probably work out fine, we suffer in the moment because we spend too much time considering all of our options. Indecision is everywhere — we can find it when we’re considering potential life-partners, when we pick what to watch on Netflix, or even when we decide what to wear in the morning.

To overcome indecision, we have to consider which bigger decisions we can make that will eliminate other easier decisions in the future. When we make commitments to decisions that encompass multiple decisions, we have the opportunity to liberate ourselves from hundreds of decisions down the line.

Let me give you a personal example — historically, I have had a hard time saying no to sweets. I felt a sense of anguish every time I walked past my pantry, and I usually ended up eating something even if I didn’t want to because I have the option. More times than I would like, I chose to eat an unhealthy snack because the option was given to me. But one day last fall, I started the ketogenic diet. On this diet, I couldn’t eat carbs, so sweets were off the table. And since I couldn’t eat any sweets, I didn’t have any in my pantry. I no longer had anything unhealthy in my pantry, so every time I passed it, I was liberated from the anguish of choice. Because I limited my options, I was choosing for myself instead of letting my past self choose for me. I found that it was much easier to say one big “no” to snacks than to say no to smaller snacks more consistently.

To overcome information overload, limit your options — How can you have information overload if there’s only one piece of information? Successful people are successful because they can recognize the big decisions that will eliminate decisions down the line. Take a look at the wardrobes of Barack Obama, Mark Zuckerberg, or the late Steve Jobs. Each one of them has a specific uniform they wear everyday so that they never have to worry about what to wear when they get dressed in the morning. By making one big decision, they eliminated a decision that they would have had to make everyday from then on.