Jean's Blog

The Sixperiment: Day 2

Posted by Jean

Black skirt (4)  White tank (3)  Black cardigan (2) — if I need it. (it’s going to be HOT)

For the second morning in a row, I was up at 4 a.m.  And again, I was focused on what I was going to wear.  This is totally not the point.

I’m an avid fan of the research of Swarthmore College Professor Barry Schwartz, author of The Paradox of Choice. He divides the world into maximizers and satisficers.  Maximizers are people who want more, more, more of everything.  They couldn’t have a closet big enough with enough choices.  There is rarely enough.  Satisficers are the opposite.  They search through options until they find one that is good enough, then they call it a day.

Schwartz says that being a satisficer is better.  It makes you happier over time and actually enables you to get going rather than getting stuck.  I believed, in thinking about the concept of six-items-or-less, that it would move me in the right direction on the maximizer – satisficer scale.  Now, though, with two fairly sleepless nights under my belt, I’m wondering if there can be too few choices for satisficers?  I’m going to give Schwartz (and perhaps Sheena Iyengar, author of The Art of Choosing) a call today and I’ll get back to you with their thoughts.

On the positive side, once I did get out of the shower, I was dressed in 5 minutes and ready to leave the house 10 minutes ahead of schedule.  That certainly put a smile on my face.