A few years ago, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was in the headlines because he told the interviewer that he has a closet of the same T-shirts. He explained that dressing the same way every day allows him to save his mental capacity for making more significant decisions at work .
It is estimated that an American adult makes 35,000 decisions a day . Try to consider the number of decisions you make each day, from picking which outfit to put on, choosing what to eat for lunch, and making important business decisions at work. It might be tempting to think that nowadays, as we have more options ,The more likely we will be able to find the right thing . In contrast, psychologists found that people are more likely to purchase a product when given fewer options. Furthermore, people who bought from fewer options were also more satisfied with their purchases . This phenomenon is explained by “Decision Fatigue.”
Consequently, when required to make important decisions, our brain under decision-fatigue will either take the “easiest way out” by making poor decisions (i.e, impulsive purchases) or procrastinate .
So now you probably understand Zuckerberg’s clothing choice. By minimizing the number of meaningless decisions he has to make in the morning, he reserves mental capacity for more meaningful decisions at work.