Take a quick assessment of all the choices you have to make on a daily basis. You have to decide what to wear, what to eat, what route to take to work, what task to work on first and when to take your lunch break. These can be compounded by dozens of other decisions, big or small, that can add massive stress that results in increased driving fears and driving anxiety. Get rid of some of those choices by setting up routines and your stress levels and driving phobias may decrease accordingly.
The Research
According to study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, making loads of choices every day can ultimately decrease your self-control. The self-control to which the study referred went beyond the typical definition of not eating that second piece of cake. It instead viewed self-control as a concept that included physical stamina, motivation and persistence.
Study participants who were forced to make gads of choices showed reduced self-control, which thus meant they had less stamina, were more likely to procrastinate and were less able to soldier on in the face of failure.
Sounds like a prime way to increase stress, driving anxiety and headaches.
Reducing the amount of choices you make, therefore, can work to reduce the amount of stress, driving anxiety and headaches that stem from having way too many decisions to make throughout the day. That’s exactly where routine kicks in.
Routine to Decrease Choices
Methods you can use to replace decisions with routine are fairly straightforward, according to an article in Harvard Business Review. Options include:
- Setting up a certain time to perform daily tasks
- Making a routine out of getting ready for your day each morning and preparing to go home each evening
- Having lunch, dinner and other meals at the same time every day
- Implementing a menu you decided upon and set in advance, reducing the daily food choices to a once-weekly decision
You can even go as far as to stick with certain colors or styles of clothing and other items around the house to reduce the choices in other areas as well.
You certainly don’t want to become as bland or systematic as a robot, but you can reduce your choices without compromising your personality. In fact, your personality may even become a bit more bubbly if you’re reducing your stress and your driving fears while better enjoying your life.
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