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We make 15 decisions a day

People can make 15 decisions a day. By reducing the number of decisions, we’re reducing our stress.

To relieve stress, you should try to make less than 15 decisions a day


Read once somewhere that people can make 15 decisions a day. That sounds about right.

In fact, I’ll take it one step further, the fact that:

  1. we can only make 15 decisions a day and
  2. must make 15 decisions a day,

…leads to the stress in our lives. Because sometimes we have to make more. And we’re not really equipped/built to do so.

IMHO, that’s the real reason that we miss childhood; back then, someone else made the decisions for us.

While still young, we fought to make more of those 15 decisions, and then as we got older still, we found we had to make those decisions.

Well, that was dumb.

English: Decisions Decisions (Horton, Point or...
English: Decisions Decisions (Horton, Point or Green) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Bearing this in mind, a few years back, I tried to minimize the number of decisions I had to make on a daily basis.

You know why you have rules? You have rules so you don’t have to think because you’ve already thought about it before.

That’s why I have rules and a schedule. It minimizes the discrete decisions I have to make each.

  • Is it Monday? That’s when I usually have client meetings and phone calls.
  • It it Tuesday? I pop over and see my parents in midday and have my fencing class at night.

When the weather’s cool, I wear a suit because it’s easy. I don’t wear a tie even though I have more ties than pretty much anyone I know. One less decision to make.

The problem with this whole plan is when I have a new decision to make. Usually labour over it for a while before I make a decision. But once I do, I try as best as I can not to go back.

After all, we all wanna keep going forward don’t we? I’d like to, anywho.

Location: it’s Wednesday, so that means more meetings and the gym
Mood: steamy
Music: It’s a beautiful bright day outside the door.
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4 replies on “We make 15 decisions a day”

That’s why a combination of rules and scheduling will ease up some of the stress. Try sticking to a well-thought out schedule.

Thank goodness for schedules. It really makes the decision-stuff easier.

Now that I’m an ESL teacher and that each of my students have their own tailored English lesson (up to 2 hrs), I spend almost an entire day scheduling out and prepping/researching/photocopying/printing each portion of the lesson, for only 3 lessons! BUT, I have smooth lessons and no stress during, so it’s worth it. 🙂

It may get a lot more complicated (ahem, organized) when kiddos are involved…!

I’m with you… I don’t even like deciding what to wear each day; I rather know in advance!
*checks schedule to see what’s next this evening*

Proper planning gets rid of stress, that’s absolutely true. And I’m sure that it *will* get more complicated and organized when kiddos are involved. But after you’ve done it for a while, I’m sure it’ll just easier and easier.

How does it feel to be (a) teaching and (b) having a job again?

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