Since I am old enough to remember when, in Ireland, it was a challenge to find a red pepper for sale in a supermarket (or even to find a supermarket !), there is no need to remind me why choice is better than no choice.

But now many of us are becoming weary of the amount of choices with which we are faced. We have to decide daily on matters ranging from selection of broad-band provider to choice of brand of sugar. Are you, like me, approaching the state of being overwhelmed by decisions and choices ?

Maybe you too are an old fogey but twenty-something Tim Ferriss, author of The Four-Hour Working Week (or 4HWW as he, following his own advice, refers to it) most certainly is not. And yet:

I’d already been there 30 minutes. Beginning to feel overwhelmed with a ridiculous errand I’d expected to take five minutes, I stumbled across the psychology section. One tome jumped out at me as all too appropriate — The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less. It wasn’t the first time I’d seen or read Barry Schwarz’s 2004 classic, but it seemed like a good time to revisit the principles, among them that:

- The more options you consider, the more buyer’s regret you’ll have.

- The more options you encounter, the less fulfilling your ultimate outcome will be.

He goes on to recommend "the choice-minimal lifestyle" which

...becomes an attractive tool when we consider two truths:

1) Considering options costs attention that then can’t be spent on action or present-state awareness.

2) Attention is necessary for not only productivity but appreciation.

Income is renewable, but some other resources — like attention — are not. I’ve talked before about attention as a currency and how it determines the value of time.

Therefore:

Too many choices = less or no productivity

Too many choices = less or no appreciation

Too many choices = sense of overwhelm

What to do ? ...

Don’t postpone decisions or open “loops,” to use GTD parlance, just to avoid uncomfortable conversations. If an acquaintance asks you if you want to come to their house for dinner next week, and you know you won’t, don’t say “I’m not sure. I’ll let you know next week.” Instead, use something soft but conclusive like “Next week ? I’m pretty sure I have another commitment on Thursday, but thank you for the invite. Just so I don’t leave you hanging, let’s assume I can’t make it, but can I let you know if that changes ?” Decision made. Move on.

Learn to make non-fatal or reversible decisions as quickly as possible.

Remember that word "reversible": he warns that getting into your car while drunk may be quicker than waiting for a taxi but it is not a reversible decision. He is also careful to distinguish his suggested approach from indecision or inactivity:

Decision-making isn’t to be avoided —that’s not the problem. Look at a good CEO or top corporate performer and you’ll see a high volume of decisions.

It’s deliberation — the time we vacillate over and consider each decision — that’s the attention consumer. Total deliberation time, not the number of decisions, is what determines your attention bank account balance (or debt).

The entire article - and the complete website of this truly remarkable young man - deserves to be read to get the full value: the above extracts only scratch the surface.

About positive thinking, on the other hand, I am always suspicious: I tend to associate it with efforts to keep digging instead of getting out of the wrong hole.

One of the many things that I like about Mark Forster is how many of my insights he publishes. (How's that for positive thinking !) In a recent article, he starts:

We are often told about the benefits of positive thinking but I have to admit I have always been a little bit sceptical on the subject.

When I tell myself that I am incredibly successful, intelligent, attractive, etc. there’s always a little voice inside of me going “Oh, yeah ?”

The fact is that we always know subconsciously when we are trying to fool ourselves, and the danger is that all we succeed in doing is hypeing ourselves up in preparation for an inevitable fall.

It’s much better to build on what we have achieved and to reinforce the successes that we really have had. However bad our day, however much we may have behaved like a loser, there are always some things that we have done well. So rather than dwell on the failures let’s seek out and reinforce our successes.

Here’s an exercise to help....

Go to the article to learn about the exercise.

As Mark says, the difference between this and positive thinking - as that term is often mis-used - is that you are not trying to persuade yourself of something you don’t really believe is true. Instead you are reinforcing something you have just proved is true !

After a poor night's sleep, or a succession of nights with even a small sleep deficit, my good temper and concentration will be noticeably affected. Unfortunately, I may not be the one who notices it, except after the fact. So, I always try to get enough sleep and if I find myself unable to function as I want, a longer than usual sleep will always improve matters.

And the single most important factor in ensuring that I sleep well is to drink lots of water, especially (but not exclusively) if alcohol has been consumed. While this will often wake me up in the night with a full bladder, the interruption is temporary and non-disruptive, in my experience.

His latest book is entitled "Do it Tomorrow".

"Huh ?" I hear the universe say, " is this another one of those weirdo, nihilistic, alternative approaches to justifying inactivity ?"

No. Mark Forster is definitely not a hippie, though he is attractively laid-back and un-neurotic. (He also has good taste, as you will see when you visit his website and wonder if you have left mine at all ! Just for the record, I published mine first, and the similarities will be steadily diminishing).

His message in his latest book makes perfect sense to me. I think this passage probably summarises it as well as any:

One of the great secrets of time management is not to give things more urgency than they deserve.Never react to anything immediately unless it is a genuine emergency or your job is to provide immediate responses ... Your default setting should be "Do it Tomorrow".