Highly successful people wear the same outfit every day.
The late Apple founder Steve Jobs' black turtleneck, blue jeans, and trainers are the most recognizable example, but Barack Obama and Mark Zuckerberg are also commonly known for their repetitive wardrobe.
The reasoning is easy to understand. It reduces the number of decisions they have to make in order to save energy.
Barry Schwartz, a psychologist and visiting professor at UC Berkeley, told Insider that decision fatigue is real. He explored in his 2004 book how having too much choice can leave us paralyzed and affect our ability to make decisions.
Our brains have a limited amount of energy. This store is reduced by every single one of the thousands we make a day.
Schwartz said that we underappreciate how much effort goes into making conscious, deliberate decisions. You don't have to devote any bandwidth to them if they are demoted to habit or some kind of routine.
I would like to have a bit more routine in my life. Sometimes I struggle to get started, and sometimes I can't concentrate from day to day.
Maybe Jobs's technique could help. I tried it out for a week.
It was easy to add to my routine.
I wore multiple blue T-shirts, black jeans, and a beige jumper throughout the week, but I didn't dress like Jobs. I wore Nike sneakers to finish off the outfit.
I prepared my outfit for each morning and was ready to go.
It was easy to add it to my schedule. I start my morning routine with a 15-minute walk, showering and making breakfast, before I get to work. I had to make a decision, but having my outfit ready made that decision unnecessary.
I wore a beige jumper, blue T-shirts, black jeans, and Nike sneakers.
Stephen Jones.
It would be hard to say that it made me more productive by the end of the week. I didn't feel like I made better decisions.
After speaking to psychologists, I think it didn't work.
Brooke Struck is the research director at the Decision Lab, a Canadian company that investigates decision-making.
Struck said that eating properly and getting enough sleep affect our decision-making abilities.
Task switch is one of the most taxing things you can do.
I arrived in the office feeling behind because of the train delay. On another night, I had trouble sleeping, which made it harder to concentrate. My jumper didn't stop the constant distraction of slack notifications or emails.
If you don't sleep well, eat badly, or switch between multiple tasks, your decision-making will still be affected.
"If you think that wearing a black turtleneck every day for a week is enough to notice a change, your expectations are probably out of line," Struck said.
The duration of time you do it is important.
Schwartz said that uncertainty has an impact on our ability to make decisions. The Pandemic may have made daily decision-making harder because it has disrupted people's established habits.
Schwartz said that in an uncertain world, you're going to make bad decisions. The trick is to give yourself the best chance to make a good decision.
I'm not going to stick to a one-dimensional wardrobe. I like the chance to try something new. It's probably a better idea to invest the time I'll save from not having to lay out my outfit in the middle of the night.
