The BIGG Successs Show
3 Action Items to Increase Your Productivity
New research shows how making decisions affects your productivity. Read our show summary at biggsuccess.com.
Welcome to the Big Success Show. Today, we'll share three action items to simplify decision-making. The Big Success Show with George and Mary Lynn. There's a new study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. A group of researchers surveyed 58 random people in a shopping mall. Pretty sure all my sisters were there. These researchers asked the participants to recall the decisions they had made that day. And then, the researchers asked the participants to solve some simple math problems. Now, Mary Lynn, I think this is really interesting. They found that the participants who had made more decisions were less likely to be able to solve these simple math problems. Now, that was one of several experiments they conducted, but it's definitely the one I relate to most, though, because of the shopping. Oh, I thought you were going to say the bad math. Well, there's that, too. But these researchers concluded that there appears to be a personal price to making decisions. We become less productive the more decisions we're required to make. We suffer from mental fatigue. And I would say, though, it's kind of the result of our own creation, right? Because we like to have choices, so we've demanded more choices. And marketers have responded at an overwhelming rate. Well, here's a simple example that we can all relate to. Picture yourself in a grocery store, holding a sticky note with six items on your list. Orange juice, bagels, Philadelphia cream cheese, caress toothpaste, coke, and lettuce. That's an unusual breakfast you're cooking up there, Mary Lynn. Right. Somewhat healthy. Well, in 1970, with that simple six item list, you would have had a choice of 50 items. By 1998, you would need to filter through 250 different products five times the amount just to get all the items on your list. Now, this is according to the book, Simplicity Marketing and brand complexity, clutter, and confusion by Steven M. Crystal and Peter Sealy. And it's a spectacular book. We highly recommend you checking it out. Think about this, though. That was 1998. Now, do you think it's gotten any better? Do we think we have fewer choices now 10 years later? Or do you think this trend towards more choice has only continued? Plus, each store has their own knockoff brands. That's right. You save money. So, yes, it's definitely gotten worse. Coming up three big action items to take away from today's discussion. Today, we're discussing the abundance of choices we have available to us and a new study that shows that all of these choices are hurting our productivity. Now, we want to discuss three big action items to simplify your decision making. Number one, make a list that's specific. So, specific that you could send someone else and get exactly what you want. Studies show that people who shop with a list tend to spend less money than those who don't because there's less or no impulse buying. And more importantly, it saves you time. And as the study has shown, mental fatigue. And I've got a prime example, George. Whenever I go into a Walgreens without a list, I get this glaze over my eyes. I've seen that glaze, Mary Lynn. It's scary. It's like I get in a candy shop because they have just little bits of everything and I'll just spend way too much time in there and way too much money otherwise. Well, number two, set a time limit when you shop at Walgreens. Oh, wait. No, that was number two for Mary Lynn. Now, for the rest of us, it's set a time limit when you're making a major decision. Now, obviously, there's a certain amount of research that you have to do and want to do, but get it done or reach your time limit and then force yourself to make a decision. Another example, we recently set up the website for Big Studio and that's a sister site to big success for audio production services. We needed to decide on a template for the website and there are an endless number of templates out there. But we found one that fit our criteria, bought it and moved on and we did that all within the time frame we had set. And here's a little tip that I love, Mary Lynn. Get out your magic eight ball. It sounds silly, doesn't it? It's toys. Well, the thing is make a decision and then ask the magic eight ball if you made the right decision. Look at the answer it brings back to you and then here's the important part. See how you feel about it. This taps into your intuition about the decision. That's what I love about it. And if you'd like to know more about this action item, we have a couple of posts that go into more detail about that on our blog today and that list also includes a link to an online magic eight ball. So you don't have to rush right out and buy one. Oh, I just love it. Should I be looking at the magic eight ball right now? Yeah, say number three. And I think this is the most important of our big action items today. Become a partner in stress relief for the most important people in your life. Get to know the preferences of these people who depend on you, your customers, your coworkers, your boss, your significant other. And when you do that, you can weed through all the options and present them with just a few. The authors of Simplicity Marketing, the book that we referenced earlier, make the point that the next generation of positioning successes will belong to those brands that relieve customer stress. So there's a huge opportunity in the future for people and companies who are able to simplify things who become a partner in stress relief according to this book. This applies to your company brand, but it also is an opportunity with your personal brand. And you know, this is one of the things, Mary Lynn, that we really try hard to do here at big success. There's so much information out there. We try to sort through it all and deliver to you each day those few things that we found to be the most important. You'll find links to the resources that we've mentioned on the show today on our blog at big success. That's big with 2g success.com. And that's also where we have a written summary of today's show. Next time we ask the question, are you fishing for customers in the wrong hole? And we'll include an action item sure to help you get some bites. Until then, here's to your big success. The big success show at B-I-G-G Success.com. (gentle music)