Hi
You may have heard of Tim Ferriss.
He is famous for the
books 'the 4 hr work week' and the '4 hr body'.
As you probably can tell, his whole premise is towards getting the maximum out of the minimum time invested.
The margin created is then free time and energy for
you
We use this in many forms in health and fitness:
- strength coaching: minimum weight lifted for the maximum return in muscle and strength gain. Any more and the risk increases so this is a fine art getting this correct
- nutrition: maximum nutrition from the calories you consume (this is achieved by REAL, high nutrient value food)
- speed training: maximum power output for the minimum energy expended. The more efficient your body is at creating power the further and faster you go
Applying this to decision making with reference to behaviour change has been one
of the most effective formulae we have seen with our work with clients.
Tim discusses the theory that we have a finite amount of 'hit points' per day with regards to decision making a day.
Whatever intellect, resolve, IQ and age you
are we can all eventually get overwhelmed by too many decisions and our 'decision points' dwindled
This then leads to poor choices!
One study
done on college students saw one group given a set of choices around some clothes shopping they were asked to do in a store e.g.
- What shirt, T shirt or Collar?
- What colour?
- Jeans or shorts?
- and so on...
Another group in the same store
were told to just simply go in and have a look about and buy an outfit.
Both groups were then told to put a hand in a bucket of ice to see who could stay in the longest.
This method was chosen as it takes a lot of 'decision hit points' to keep the willpower strong and the hand in the
ice.
Although the choices were simple for the first group, the experimenters showed a definite correlation that this group removed their hand much earlier than the second, less decision fatigued group.
