Have a default choice

Don't overthink the little things

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Today's tip is to make default decisions so you can
quickly navigate the problem of having too many choices. I
know that having too many choices sounds like the definition

(00:25):
of a first world problem. There are plenty of people
out there whose lives are constrained by restrictions they didn't choose,
and who struggle to meet their basic needs. But I'm
guessing this is not the situation facing many listeners of
this podcast. We often face the opposite problem. How do
we navigate the myriad choices we encounter daily without feeling

(00:46):
stressed or regretful about our decisions? Well, choice seems like
a good thing, too much of it can take a toll.
In his book The Paradox of Choice, psychologist Barry Schwartz
explains that people can feel an at the prospect of
making a choice and overwhelmed by all the options. Then
we can feel regretful of decisions as we recall the

(01:08):
options given up. This is all made worse because we
feel responsible for the outcome, having made the choice ourselves.
So what are we to do? Schwartz recommends choosing when
to choose, as he puts it, rather than investing time
and energy in every decision we face, figure out which

(01:29):
ones weren't thoughtful deliberations. For everything else, go with a
default option. And maybe this sounds challenging, but it turns
out that if you are an upstanding citizen, you've probably
already got default rules for a lot of things. Schwartz
gives the example of wearing a seatbelt or not cheating
on your partner. These are in fact choices, but there

(01:53):
are good enough reasons not to seriously entertain the alternative
that most of us don't spend a whole lot of
time thinking about it. It turns out you can also
make default decisions on many other things, even if the
consequences aren't so dire, and lots of people have heard
about the example of President Obama wearing only gray or
blue suits. By eliminating insignificant choices, he could focus on

(02:17):
more important things. If the situation called for it, he'd
wear something else, but there had to be a good reason. Likewise,
maybe you can set meal time defaults. Turkey, sausage and
fruit for breakfast, a green vegetable and every lunch and
dinner no alcohol during the week. It's also a good
idea to have a good two restaurant or two for

(02:37):
work lunches and dinners. When someone suggests meeting for a meal,
you know exactly where to take the person and you
know exactly what to order. Of course, if there's a
reason to switch from the default, you can. If you're
entertaining a vegetarian client, for instance, best to go to
a restaurant with more than one veggie option. But having

(02:59):
a default means you can focus on preparing for the
meeting rather than choosing a restaurant, and you can focus
on the meal time conversation rather than the menu. Like
President Obama, you could also choose defaults for getting dressed.
If you love fashion, that's wonderful. But for those of
us who just want to look put together and socially appropriate,

(03:20):
figure out what works and go with that. For a
normal business entire workplace, for example, your default outfit might
be a dress shirt, black pants, and black dress shoes.
Your weekend daytime default might be a sweater, jeans, and
slip on loafers or flats. You might only buy black
leggings or running shorts so that you don't have to

(03:40):
think about whether the color of your bottom half looks
ridiculous with your exercise. Top defaults can help with your
schedule too. If Friday night is always date night, you
can have a babysitter who is scheduled every week, rather
than having to find a babysitter each time you decide
to go out. Indeed, you can have to faults for
just about anything. I love this example from before Breakfast

(04:03):
listener Jennifer. I work on a college campus with lots
of parking lots. She writes, over the years, I have
needlessly spent time walking around searching for my car at
the end of the day. Last year, I decided to
park in the same parking lot each and every day.
This way, I don't forget where my car is parked,

(04:23):
and I don't have to put a reminder in my
phone or think of another way to remember where my
car is that day. At the end of the day,
I walk from wherever I am on campus to my
car in my parking lot. It has taken one decision
out of my list of daily decisions and has limited
my aimless walking all over campus to find my car.

(04:44):
What default decisions have you made? Are there areas of
your life you might be able to streamline with a
default decision, I'd love to hear about it. You can
reach me at Before Breakfast podcast at iHeart media dot com.
In the meantime, this is ura. Thanks for listening and
here's to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody,

(05:11):
I'd love to hear from you. You can send me
your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with
me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod
that's B the number four, then breakfast p o D.
You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast
podcast at i heeart media dot com. That Before Breakfast

(05:33):
is spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much,
should I look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast
is a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts
from my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

(06:00):
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