You only have a limited amount of decisions you're able to make every single day.
It's like a decision bank account.
And the more decisions you make, the more decision capital you’ll withdraw from that bank account, the fewer decision capital you’ll have left.
And it doesn’t matter how big or small the decision is that you make. Every decision will withdraw the exact same amount of decision capital.
It only applies to decisions we’ve never made before though.
When we are in situations we’ve never been in before. Because these are the situations we’re not used to. Situations we’re not familiar with. Situations where our brains don’t have a map to follow. Situations that make our brains sweat.
Like choosing a dish in a restaurant we’ve never been to with 30+ different items on it. It’s almost as hard as deciding what job to apply for.
The later during the day and the more decisions you’ve already made, the harder it’ll get.
Or deciding about what video to watch on YouTube. Or what blog post to read on Medium. Or what podcast episode to listen to. Or what clothes to wear. I think you get the idea.
All of these things, no matter how big or small, reduce our available decision capital.
I become aware of this phenomenon every time I travel to a place I’ve never been to before. Now if you only travel that’s no problem and you won’t be aware of it.
But when you try to get some stuff done while traveling it gets very tough.
Like finding a restaurant that doesn’t only serve good food but that also looks like you won’t end up with food poisoning.
And the longer it takes, the longer it takes to find a suitable restaurant, the more equity from your decision bank account will be deducted. And then there’s not enough capital left for all the important decisions of the day.
That’s why Steve Jobs wore the same sweater every single day.
That’s why Mark Zuckerberg wears the same t-shirts all the time.
They don’t want to waste any of their decision capital on meaningless decisions like what clothes to wear.
They realized that to be able to make the best decisions possible they needed all available decision capital.
So they eliminated all the meaningless decisions from their lives.
To be able to put all of their decision capital on the things and decisions that really matter..
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