Are You A Victim Of Choice Overload?
Having more options is not good for you
“Sometimes having more options is equivalent to having none.”
Suppose you went to a newly opened restaurant. As you get comfortable with the diners’ vibe, you are handed over with a whopping 20-page menu card! The decorated card has a wide array of dishes. What’s more, each category contains more than dozen of items.
Do you think you will be able to decide on which course of dishes to order?
Studies suggest that you’ll suffer choice paralysis — A downfall in your decision-making abilities.
Talking from my personal experience, when I face such a time at a restaurant, I leave the decision to others, or better to the waiter.
We become poor at decision-making when we are given a lot of options.
You might have heard about popular research called the Supermarket Jam Experiment. It concludes that the more choices you are presented with, the less likely you are to decide what you want.
Here is a short summary of the experiment.
I happened to confront choice overload when it was time to decide my life’s trajectory. As a well-read person, I was rich in options!
After passing my Bachelor’s in Civil Engineering, I had a lot of options to choose from. Each one was supposed to drive my life to a different reality. I started fantasizing about every option. I would dream about doing everything at once! And that was the red flag.
I couldn’t decide which one to go with, so I didn’t start at all! This delayed my starting up phase. Furthermore, I happened to repeat the same mistake in my startup journey. I was unconscious about choice overload so I worked simultaneously. It hardly made me productive. Then I came across an article similar to the one you are reading!
You lose twice in deciding what to choose.
First, you delay starting up.
Second, your delay in taking a decision. This leads you to lose your competitive advantage.
What’s The Solution?
When instances of choice overload occur, the best way to deal with it is to apply the principle of comparative advantage. It suggests you find out the opportunity cost of each choice and decide the one which gives the best returns.
But, many a time, you’ll confront options that are abstract and uncountable. Choosing careers/courses is one such example.
In that case, most people choose the option which they are most comfortable with.
I chose Civil Engineering because I had our family enterprise to back me.
Although hooking upon a backup reduces risk, it covers you in the fabric of comfort.
You somehow delay taking action — A trait of a master procrastinator.
If you’ve gone through any website which provides a subscription service, you’ll see that they display at most 3 choices. That is their strategy to increase their chances of getting more subscriptions.
Strategy To Help You Deal With Choices
- Get clarity about what you want. Dig deep into your mind by investing your time in journaling and meditation.
- Narrow down your choices by crossing off, leaving the top three to decide upon.
- Calculate the comparative advantage of each choice.
- If that’s not possible, do a Scenario Analysis.
- Discuss the options with your mentors.
- Try to interlink the possible ways — Check if you can delay other options and prioritize the best one.
Remember — The biggest failure is not trying at all. Ensure that you don’t remain in your comfort zone as it will delay your progress.
Plus practice Decision making in daily life to become a better decision-maker.
PS — Have you ever been a victim of choice overload and later failed in your chosen venture?
