Limit Choices & Increase Happiness
Transcript:
Have you tried to make a cake lately? It’s amazing how many options we have! I mean an entire one-third of an aisle is devoted to cake mixes! Yellow, white, orange, brown, multicolored, oil or butter based. And then the icings! Thank goodness I’m gluten free so I’m pretty restricted to what I kind of cake I can make!
And what about cereal? I believe the last time I looked there was an entire aisle plus a one-fourth of another aisle that was nothing but cereal at my local Wal-Mart. I don’t know about you but I feel overwhelmed just walking past all of those choices.
The Gourmet Jam Study
Research reveals that giving your customer too many choices can hurt your business! Sheena Iyengar and Mark Lepper conducted research on choice overwhelm in 2000 in an upscale food market using 24 varieties of gourmet jam. Samplers received a coupon for $1 off any jam. Every few hours, the selection dropped to a group of six jams also offering the same coupon. On average, people sampled 2 jams regardless of whether 24 or 6 were displayed.
But here is where it gets very interesting—sixty percent of customers were drawn to the large assortment and 40% to the small one but 30% purchased from the small display and only 3% from the large proving that although choices are appealing in theory, PEOPLE FIND IT MORE DIFFICULT TO DECIDE WHAT TO BUY SO THEY BUY NOTHING! There’s a technical term for it, “choice paralysis.”
Other studies revealed that more choices also cause “buyer’s remorse” because each new option diminishes the feeling of satisfaction and well being. In other words, your customer wonders if he or she bought the right product. Too many options also causes anxiety, excessive high expectations, and self-blame if the choices don’t work out.
Bottom line. Simplify your products and services.
Steve Job's Genius
One of the first things Steve Jobs did when he returned to Apple was slim down the product line, which had grown exponentially during his absence. He then focused everyone at Apple on the remaining products to make them the best and easiest to use as possible. It worked and, literally, saved Apple.
“In character, in manner, in style, in all things, the supreme excellence is simplicity. ”
As a side note…Jobs was known for always wearing jeans and black turtlenecks because he limited his choices as much as possible so he could focus on the most important ones. The super successful leverage the power of LIMITED CHOICES by eliminating all unnecessary ones.
When I owned a personal training business, I always encouraged my new clients to eat the same things every day until they learned how to eat healthy. Have eggs and bacon for breakfast. Eat grilled chicken salad for lunch. Eat pork roast and steamed veggie for dinner. Eat the same snacks.
You would’ve thought I asked them to eat their kids! I’d hear things like, “I like variety! How boring! I couldn’t do that!”
What happened was that by insisting on too much variety at the beginning of their fitness journey, they sabotaged their weight loss efforts because every meal became a decision to make causing overwhelm and they’d revert to the same fast food and junk food that caused the weight gain in the first place. A major part of my fitness success is that I eat the exact same meals every day with minor variations. Occasionally I’ll find a new recipe I like and eat it regularly, but I limit my choices because who has time to think about what to eat all the time?
Barry Schwartz in “The Paradox of Choice” states, “Seeking the perfect choice…is a recipe for misery. This includes both big and small choices from everyday choices to relationship choices, etc. The more options you have, the more it costs you in time and effort not to mention a lack of certainty as well as decision fatigue.
“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. ”
What To Do for your business
Limit your products and services. This is especially true for course creators, photographers, and other service-based businesses. I know this can be hard. I’m an idea generator and not creating a course on every idea I think up is hard! But it can be done. :)
If you have ideas or need creative inspiration or direction, record all your ideas and ponder them until one just seems to “fit.” I do this a lot. When I start the design of a new course, a new website, etc. the hardest and most intensive part is the design, the colors, etc. I literally draw out my ideas if applicable, play around with colors, and layout. Next I start inserting pics, using colors, etc. and see what works then rest from that and still ponder as I go about my other tasks.
Keep your business model simple and strategic.
Do beta testing and see what are the most popular and useful products, courses, and services you have. Eliminate the rest.
What to do for yourself
Make the most important decisions earlier in the day. Willpower has a shelf life. Every decision you have to make drains your willpower gas tank. Eliminating unnecessary choices for yourself is the smart thing to do!
Sleep on it. This is such a great strategy because you give yourself space to decide and wake up refreshed to make your decision.
Don’t go to extremes. Be okay with a middle ground. Psychologist, Dan Ariely, warns of UNCHANGEABILITY BIAS because it blocks decision-making. It’s ok to try something or experiment before making big decisions. Avoid the ALL OR NOTHING MENTALITY. Work your current job and your side hustle until your hustle makes you more money than your current job!
Don’t try to figure out exactly how everything will go. Choices beget other choices. You can’t know what opportunities are going to come from your choices until you start making them. Same with obstacles. You can try to imagine potential obstacles and how you’ll handle them. But also know that predicting everything is impossible. So what if your idea fails? You learned great things in the process to take to the next idea.