One of the cardinal directives of society is that everyone must abide by certain standards. We have certain expectations for cleanliness, personal grooming and behavior, and we expect others to respect our opinion whether or not they agree with it. One rule, however, seems to fly in the face of this law of conformity. If you are successful, this one reads, you can be as eccentric as you please, disregarding cultural norms.
Take a look at Mark Zuckerberg to see this rule in action. The 32-year-old CEO of Facebook receives a lot of flack for his personal style choices. For those who don’t know, Zuckerberg is infamous for wearing the same grey tee and hoodie combo on a daily basis. It’s often said that “he doesn’t even wear a suit to important meetings,” in a tone that suggests, “What’s wrong with the man?” Facebook’s founder is, of course, aware of these remarks, and has even made humorous social media posts about his lack of wardrobe diversity.
As enticing as it is to ask “What is he doing?” (as if one of the world’s youngest billionaires has no idea what he’s up to) it would probably be more educational to ask, “Why is he doing it?” And whether Zuckerberg realizes it or not, the CEO of Facebook is making a smart decision when it comes to his daily attire. In his first public Q&A session (back in 2014), Zuckerberg addressed an audience member who asked about his unwavering commitment to the same outfit:
"I really want to clear my life to make it so that I have to make as few decisions as possible about anything except how to best serve this community,” he declared. “I feel like I'm not doing my job if I spend any of my energy on things that are silly or frivolous about my life.”
We assume that daily outfit selection falls into the latter category.
Now, what is really intriguing about his response is the fact that, without using the term, he put his finger on the pulse of an important psychological phenomenon one should understand when discussing productivity and effectiveness. This phenomenon is called decision fatigue.
Research in the field of willpower and decision making has led to the conclusion that your willpower is actually a lot like a muscle. Rather than having an endless reserve of willpower to rely on when making decisions, each successive choice actually drains energy and makes it harder to make a well-considered determination in the future. We’ve all experienced this. That’s why it’s a lot easier to justify breaking your diet or procrastinating late at night after a long day—you’re worn out from making the “right” decision at every turn and your brain is too exhausted to do anything but make the “easy” decision. Just as going to the gym and doing exercises depletes the energy in your body, decision fatigue describes the phenomenon of willpower energy being drained through the action of making choices. Each choice is an exercise in your self-discipline gym and it makes all future judgements more difficult.
A study published by the National Academy of Sciences in 2011 examined 1,112 judges in Israel, each of whom was making dozens of decisions every day about whether or not to grant certain prisoners parole. What the study found was intriguing. Rather than being based on the crime committed, judges’ verdicts seemed to be far more heavily influenced by the time of day. Fresh in to work in the morning, 65 percent of the judges’ rulings were positive. As the day progressed, this number steadily declined to 0. After a lunch break, the number jumped back up to 65 percent before falling once more until evening.
What was going on? It turns out that the judges were falling victim to decision fatigue.
Decision fatigue doesn’t just apply to making difficult choices, either. It applies to all choices. Even if deciding between four different breakfast cereals doesn’t feel draining, the fact that you need to consciously choose is depleting your reserves. What outfit to wear, what route to take to work, what food to eat and whether or not to study are all choices that are wearing down your willpower bar until it’s next to 0 and you fall prey to the next poor decision-making opportunity that comes your way.
So what is one simple way to conserve your decision-making capacity for important choices rather than wasting it on frivolous to-do’s? Automate, automate, automate. Mark Zuckerberg does this by only wearing one outfit. President Barack Obama does something similar—he only wears grey or blue suits. “I’m trying to pare down decisions,” President Obama said. “I don’t want to make decisions about what I’m eating or wearing. Because I have too many other decisions to make.”
Choose your outfit the night before so that your willpower will be replenished by your night of sleep. Choose what meal you’re going to purchase or make in advance (and tell yourself to not even look at all the other options, tantalizing though they may be). Block out time in your day to go to the gym, and get over there before you let yourself rationalize why not to do it. These are just some ideas for how you can save your willpower for the important decisions in your life instead of wasting it on trivialities. On the other hand, you could just go all in and wear the same tee shirt every day. You may not be conforming to society’s expectations of behavior, but when you’re a billionaire you can get away with things like that.
Jack Dolinar is a Trinity sophomore. His column, “more percent efficient,” runs on alternate Fridays.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.
Jack Dolinar is a Trinity junior. His column runs on alternate Mondays.