Why Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg wore the same outfit everyday...

written by JOSH GESSNER | The Curious Competitor

You've probably heard this story.

Mark Zuckerburg was asked why he wears the same outfit everyday.

Everyone expected a playful response, but he answered seriously:

"I really want to clear my life to make it so that I have to make as few decisions as possible"

From breakfast to outfits, he limits the decisions he makes on a daily basis.

We're all left wondering... Why?

He explains that decisions - no matter how small, can consume energy.

"I feel like I'm not doing my job if I spend any of my energy on things that are silly or frivolous about my life,"

Is this true?

Turns out it is - and it's called 'Decision Fatigue'.

On a daily basis, humans make close to 35,000 decisions.

Should I hit snooze?

What should I wear today?

What order should I get from Starbucks?

With each one, we fatigue our decision-making muscle just a little bit.

The point:

Decisions take a lot of mental effort.

The more decisions you make, the more your brain gets tired...

And the worse decisions you make.

Decision Fatigue.

Are we all affected?

I recently read about how judges are affected by decision fatigue.

They make high leverage decisions all day...

Do they suffer from decision fatigue?

What I found was worse than I thought.

In a study published by the National Academy of Sciences:

Researchers wanted to find reasons for whether or not a criminal would be granted parole.

You would think the leading factor would be something along the lines of:

• Crime committed

• Particular law broken

• Severity of the crime

What they found?

The leading factor was the time of day.

Yes, the time of day.

At the beginning of the day, judges gave favourable decisions about 65% of the time.

However as time went on...

The likelihood of a criminal getting a favorable outcome steadily dropped to 0.

Basically... if you had a hearing later in the day, you were screwed.

It didn't matter what the crime was:

• Murder

• Rape

• Theft

They had a 65% chance of parole in the morning, close to 0% at the end of the day.

But why?

Decision Fatigue.

As the judges made more decisions - their brains became tired...

It became easier to say 'no' than to make a decision that would affect society.

How this affects you:

Decision fatigue explains why ordinarily sensible people:

• Splurge on clothes

• Buy junk food at the supermarket

• Get angry at colleagues and families

Things that take us further away from our goals.

So what can we do about it?

3 ways to hack decision fatigue:

1) Plan the night before

2) Do the most important thing first

3) Make it a habit

Let's cover each one:

1) Plan the night before.

If you can take a couple minutes to mentally plan out the next day:

• What to wear

• Where to eat

• What to do at specific times

You can eliminate unnecessary decision making - just like Zuckerburg.

2) Do the most important thing first.

As we saw in the judge example, your decision-making is sharpest early in the day.

Whatever you're current priority is:

• Writing

• Business

• Working Out

Put your best energy toward it, first thing in the day.

3) Make it habit.

Habits are subconscious actions that don't require decision making.

My daily habits:

• Writing

• Reading

• Baseball Practice

I don't 'decide' to do them on a daily basis.

They happen because of habit.

Main Lesson:

We can never completely overcome decision fatigue.

We make over 35,000 decisions a day.

But if we can make a few changes to our day, we'll be able to get the most out of our decision-making.