Save Your Time and Energy with This Change

The older I get, the more I value time. I’m learning that spending your time on things that don’t matter is costly, because you end up sacrificing the things that do matter. And while everyone is looking to save time, it’s never been easier to waste than it is today, because we live in a day in age of information overload.

Everything we could possibly dream of doing or buying is usually just a click away, and this leaves our minds reeling in a million different directions. I often feel like my brain is a browser with 100 different tabs open! All of these little things add up, and it’s usually at its peak around the holiday season.

So where can we cut? How can we minimize or streamline our time spent on these little things? I have found that there is one key change we can make to eliminate the constant decision-making: Decide once.

If you think about it, it’s actually the decision-making work that usually consumes so much of our brain power and time. What do I want to wear today? What should I get my partner for Christmas? Should I buy that now, or search for a better deal? What should we have for dinner? And the more options we have, the more time it takes to make the decision. And the more time we spend deciding, the less time we have for doing.

So let’s dive into what it looks like to save time by deciding once.

3 Ways To Save Time By Deciding Once

Set Up Auto-Pilot

One way to decide once is to set up auto-pilot: make a decision that you will implement over and over again. Some examples include:

• What’s for dinner? Create a weekly dinner menu, ex. Taco Tuesday, Pizza Friday, Soup Sunday. Yes, you still need to choose the variation, plan the meal, buy the ingredients, make dinner, clean up, etc. But trust me – you will definitely save yourself some time by starting within a decided framework.
• What should I wear today? Similar to the day-of-the-week dinners, I know a man who wears the same shirt each day of the work week. He has 5 favorite shirts, and he just rotates through them each week! If you don’t care about fashion or rotating your outfits more often, this is brilliant. You could even just choose one day of the week… Ex. Tuesday mornings are always rushed for me, and I have to get an allergy shot on those days, so I might choose a sleeveless shirt with a cardigan and try to repeat it every Tuesday. Decision made! Valuable morning time saved!
• What dish should I bring to that potluck? Unless there’s a specific theme, just pick something and let it become your go-to dish. Or when there is a theme, bring the same thing every year. I’ve spent a few years learning and perfecting our family’s stuffing recipe for Thanksgiving, so at this point I’m just going to lean into it and embrace that I am now the stuffing girl. Friendsgiving? I’m bringing stuffing. Thanksgiving potluck at work? Yep, I’ve got the stuffing. The same thing, every time. It’s already decided. Added bonuses: (1) You’re more likely to have the ingredients on hand if it’s something you make more often. (2) You’ll likely get better and faster at it every time!

You can apply this principle in so many ways. As we approach the holiday season, consider buying the same teacher gifts each year; implementing a secret santa or gift exchange; committing to one single family favorite tradition rather than trying to do it all. One-time decisions like this will simplify the season and hopefully create space for you to actually enjoy it.

The important thing to remember is that this only makes sense if it’s helpful for you, and if you’re happy with the decision. Can you ever change your mind? Of course! But you don’t need to re-decide everything every time. It’s okay to repeat things. In fact, repeating good decisions is probably the smartest thing you could do!

Don’t Doubt Yourself

Another way to apply the “decide once” principle is by not second-guessing your decisions. As appropriate, of course… Some decisions may need to be revisited. But for the most part, if you’ve decided to do something one way, commit to that, and keep moving.

I find that I really need to take my own advice about this when it comes to giving gifts. I will often get a gift idea in my head, but then I will spend weeks mulling over whether or not it’s good enough. Now, there is a time and a place to take your time with a special gifts, but it’s simply not reasonable to doubt yourself over every single little gift.

Save yourself some time, and don’t let good be the enemy of great.

Embrace Others’ Decisions

If someone else has already done the decision-making work (ex. they have a gift registry or wish list), don’t waste time re-doing what they’ve already done! Just buy from the registry!

Again, there is a time and place to make things special – and you can decide when to do that. But don’t let the pressure to make everything special creep in when it’s not necessary.

---

As you head into a busy gift-buying/holiday-planning week, pay attention to how much time you’re spending making decisions, and think about how you can save time by deciding once.

Need some shopping decisions that are already made for you? Check out my RTC gift guides.

Any success with this approach? Any other ideas for ways to decide once? Please share below!