Better life tip: Single socks and lazy decision-making
Making decisions takes a lot of energy. It doesn't matter whether it's a question of what to do with individual socks or whether you should change jobs. This is because the brain only has limited energy to make decisions. It therefore makes sense to reduce the number of decisions as much as possible.
Because if you save yourself the energy needed to make decisions, you have more capacity left over for other thinking tasks. That's why it's relieving to have to think and decide less.
My solution to this is to make certain decisions once and for all, or at least for a long time.
Bundling socks and decisions - for clothing
Light blue, striped or colourful? Thinking about which socks I want to wear every morning takes energy. To save energy here, I currently wear my coloured socks so often that I can dispose of them with a clear conscience.
My goal: I only want to own black and white socks. That's enough. New socks will then only be bought in bulk. Because making the decision once takes a lot of small individual decisions off my hands.
In this respect, I'm not as extreme as Steve Jobs, who always wore the same turtleneck. But he also justified his style of dress by saving on decisions: „That's one less decision per day that I have to make!“ If you make one good decision, you save yourself many others. That makes life easier.
Fundamental decisions Savings sock and other forms of money
You can make fundamental decisions for practically anything. For example, I can decide how much I want to save each month by standing order. Or that I'm happy to give something to the first beggar I meet in a day. The next ones get nothing. That's not entirely correct. I usually at least give other people seeking help a warm smile. And I say „I'm sorry, you're not the first one today!“ Most people understand and smile back.
I have also decided which organisations I would like to give money to for their work. These include the sustainable projects of Shelter Now in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Kurdistan. Helping a person or a family to build an independent existence is very rewarding for me. I then say relaxed to other appeals for donations: „I've already made up my mind!“
Specific times for specific tasks and saying goodbye to socks
Another type of basic decision is to set times. For example, I decide when to complete certain tasks. I usually have fixed times or days on which I complete recurring tasks.
- Sport: A few minutes of jogging, trampolining or working out in the morning every day
- Blessing about what is important to me: Every day in the morning
- Search for a partner for single socks: In the evening before going to bed
- Accounting and dates plan: Tuesdays
- Cleaning the stove: Saturdays
- Focus day for planning and reflection: The first day of the month
- Turn over mattresses and wash duvets: At the start of a new season
- Dispose of individual socks: My birthday (New Year's Eve would also fit well)
In order not to forget anything, I use the following for recurring tasks To-do list, one of many good organisation apps. However, I have most of it in my head because it's been ingrained in me through long practice. It doesn't take all the decisions out of my hands, but a lot of them - which is really good for me.
After my Birthday some socks have now been converted into cleaning socks. How good that I didn't have to think about it. One decision less.
