How do you handle problem of too many choices?

5 points by kosmodrom 7 years ago | 2 comments

Hi, I am struggling when there are too many choices in my life - even when I am trying to select movie to watch on Netflix I'm spending like 30 minutes trying to choose something good and often with no results.

Sometimes filtering the results help me a lot for example when I am trying to buy new shoes via Intenet I'm filtering results by me shoe size which is quite small for a men and color black and then with smaller amount of results it is much easier to me.

The examples I provided are very simple but I am struggling even with my everyday life and career path choices.

How do you cope with it?

viraptor 7 years ago |

I'm a totally undecided person. My first solution is to accept it - As in spend lots of time on the choice if it matters. If I need to buy something expensive, it will sometimes take me weeks / months background thinking about it, and I'm ok with that. If it's not urgent, why worry about that?

The second is to get many answers at the same time. I've usually got a list of movies to watch / things to read that I make in one go. You can bookmark things in some category with the idea that the next time you'll just grab the top one when you need it. You spent the time choosing them, so that part is done.

The third one is just to accept I won't make perfect choices. I can't say it's going to be easy for you, but this requires some level of training the "I don't care this isn't great. The other options would have their own issues." approach. Unless you have perfect knowledge about the products, it's always going to be true. If it was a really crappy choice, you learned something for the next time... but it doesn't matter. You saved time/energy by making one.

bemmu 7 years ago |

Any time someone mentions a new book that sounds interesting, I put it on a list. Then next time when I want something to read, I pick it from the list based on what still sounds interesting & overall score others have given it.

For Netflix, well maybe it isn't too crazy to spend a bit of time to choose, especially if it's a TV series as you might end up spending hours on it? I find analysis paralysis and setting my bar too high also a useful method to just avoid wasting time watching anything at all.