There is actually a lot of science behind why simplifying your life can actually bring you a lot more prosperity, satisfaction and happiness. One theory is the "cognitive miser". It has shown that we actually have a limited amount of decision making ability each day, called "decision fatigue". This is the reason that a lot of us can't decide what to have for dinner or lose our resolve to do certain things by the end of the day. We have literally used up our ability to make decisions through out the day starting with what to wear before we leave for work and all the decisions that follow.
So, if we can minimize some of the simple decisions we have to make each day, imagine how many other opportunities to accomplish bigger things would open up.
You've probably heard of people who have precise morning routines that they rarely deviate from (likely you've heard of them because they are successful and doing an interview about a day in the life, like Tony Robbins, Ivanka Trump etc.).
I don't know about you, but when I hear about these routines I pretty much think it sounds impossible. I mean, get up before dawn in the middle of winter to go to the gym, cook a big breakfast, read the papers, tie my shoes...ha ha ha. But, when I feel myself hitting a wall in the evening where I'm looking at the fridge and can't figure out what to do but open a can of peas for dinner, things get ugly.
So, a few of us decided to see if we could change our lives for the better with these tactics and I'm here to report out so we might help you too!
It was harder than we thought! For example, have you ever thought about the sheer insanity you face at the store? There are thousands of choices in breakfast cereal, dozens of types of eggs, don't get me started on the ice cream (seriously, if you want dairy free, sugar free, fat free ice cream maybe you should consider a trip to the produce section instead for a juicy peach), 5 scents of the same brand of bathroom cleaner, hundreds of types of toothpaste and then you have to consider that a lot of those "choices" are actually the very exact same thing from the same plant, off the same line into the same can with a different sticker on each. We live in a society of unlimited choices for everything and to make matters worse a lot of us want to find the best "deal" in all those choices so we are comparing prices and endorsements to figure it all out. It's a lot of work just to get the supplies we need before we even get to the real work of life.
All that aside, we decided to focus on 3 things: encapsulating our work wardrobe, meal planning and play time (aka exercise).
Wardrobe:
Have you ever noticed that most working men have a uniform? The same color suit/pants/jacket and maybe a couple color variation of shirts and shoes (which often go to after work and weekend events too)? More women are adopting that concept as well but every one I know still wants fun accessories and require unique outfits for occasions.
Personally, I've had something of a "uniform" since I got my first job out of college and a wise colleague said she just wore "black pants and a top" everyday so she fit the dress code and didn't spend a lot of money on outfits that the same 10 people were going to see every day anyway. She was brilliant and didn't even know about decision fatigue. At the time, I had a love of fashion that led me to a full and vibrant closet but every morning I found myself spending half an hour trying things on until coming back to the 20% of my closet that was easy - the neutral colors and simple tailored lines. Then, racing out the door. It took me a couple years before I finally resigned myself to the fact that I did indeed have a uniform and I separated my closet to the work side and the fun side and saved myself that 30 minutes every day.
Meal Planning:
The next part we tackled was food. Gemma already had this one down pat to gift the rest of us. Every morning she had the same bowl of muesli for breakfast with almond milk. Done. She highly recommended that we each eat the same thing for breakfast every morning. Our struggle was to decide what.
Jill needed to get 30 grams of protein in the morning so was often struggling between shakes, bars, eggs or a drive thru and trying to feed her kids at the same time (who each wanted something different). She was using a lot of decision making ability first thing in the morning and felt like this one would make the biggest difference in her life. So, she settled on just having eggs every morning because it was also something her kids would eat without much of a fuss.
A couple weeks later, she reports that it has worked out well. She thought cooking in the morning would take more time than cereal or a shake but she found they are actually gaining time by not having any discussion around it. We gave her a gold star!
We also came up with systems for other meals (each night of the week has a theme and lunch is always leftovers).
Play time:
This seemed to be the thing that was hardest to routinize because in the morning was too hard with all the other activities to get out the door and by evening, well we all had used up our cognitive resources so it would end up on the list to definitely do tomorrow. Hmm.
One day I saw an interview with Tracy Anderson (personal trainer of Gwyneth and Madonna) where they asked her what exercises she would recommend for a lady who only had 15 minutes. Her answer was shocking and real. She said she would tell them to get out their calendar and figure out why they didn't have an hour to show up for their health every day.
I shared this immediately and we all agreed, we had to do whatever it took to show up for our health every day and got creative, plugging in our exercise when we still had will power left during the day to make it a habit.
We each put a non-negotiable appointment on our calendar no more than 6 hours after we woke up and chose a single workout to do for 40 days. It might sound boring and go against the crowd who say you need to change up your workout so you don't plateau but that wasn't the point. What we needed was a decision-less action to take every day to show up for our health. Maybe after 40 days we can start changing it up, once the core habit is established.
Of course, we made these changes one at a time over the course of a few weeks but the results have been phenomenal. We have each found more time in our days to do the things we really love and make strategic movement toward huge goals.
I hope that this will inspire or help you if you're also struggling with that feeling of not enough time in the day or running out of will power. Let me know what your challenges are and I'll share some of our brainstorming with you to help!
The millionaire who lives in an Airstream trailer
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