Maria stood in her closet for twelve minutes, exhausted before her day even began. Navy blazer or gray? Black pants or charcoal? The red blouse that needed ironing or the white one with the questionable stain? By the time she finally dressed, she'd made seventeen micro-decisions and felt like she'd already worked a full day.
Meanwhile, her colleague James rolled out of bed, grabbed the next shirt from his identical white shirt collection, paired it with one of his five identical black pants, and was dressed in ninety seconds. He wasn't less fashionable than Maria—he'd just automated fashion.
This chapter will teach you James's secret: how to identify and automate the thousands of trivial decisions that steal your mental energy without adding value to your life.