Ever felt that something was a ‘thing’ but didn’t know someone had actually identified it and even given it a name? This is how I felt when I read about “Decision Fatigue” while researching my book.
As a personal stylist, for years I have worked with clients who struggled to make decisions about what they should wear and couldn’t understand why; “I am intelligent and successful, why can’t I figure out what looks good on me!” or “I’m dealing with million pound mergers – I haven’t got the time, inclination or energy to think about what I should wear while I’m doing it!”
Sound familiar?
Decision Fatigue is ever present in the minds of high flyers like yourself. Famous CEOs of multi-billion dollar corporations making significant decisions day in day out, might have a capsule wardrobe of similar clothes, ready and waiting each morning to grab-and-go – without giving it much thought.
Mark Zuckerberg – famous for his ‘uniform’ of grey t-shirts famously said during a 2014 Q&A, that he felt like he “was not doing my job if I spend any of my energy on things that are silly or frivolous about my life." Now, I don’t agree that clothes are ‘silly and frivolous’, but I totally see where he is coming from.
And Barack Obama, while President of the United States, arguably the most powerful job in the world, was quoted in an interview with Vanity Fair; “You’ll see I wear only grey or blue suits,” he said. “I’m trying to pare down decisions. I don’t want to make decisions about what I’m eating or wearing. Because I have too many other decisions to make.”
And these examples are from men, and they have it easy! For women, it’s a whole other level of complicated when it comes to deciding what to wear.
By removing decisions you make about your clothes each morning, you are freeing up space for the decisions throughout the day that really matter.
And, while I am not saying you shouldn’t have a little fun and variety with what you wear, I do recommend you minimise you options by finding your own signature style, and even creating outfit formulas to keep things simple and organised.
Say Goodbye to closets full of unwearable items that don’t match with anything, know what goes with what, keep your items clean, crisp and ready to wear, and concentrate on signing that merger!
Lizzie Edwards is one of London’s best Personal Stylists and Image Consultants for Business Women. You can read more about this and other topics, in her new book Look Like The Leader You Are; A 7-Step Style Strategy for Ambitious Women, which is out on 21st June.
