Don’t lose your keys: What’s in your room and the Paradox of Choice
I believe we are overwhelmed by how much there is to do and how much we need to attend to. We use a plethora of productivity tools to try and manage this. Read the following statement about the Holiday Inn requirements in the 1950’s:
In the 1950s, when Kemmons Wilson revolutionized the roadside motel business by creating the Holiday Inn franchise, he listed a Bible, a fly swatter and a flashlight as the three standard items required in every room.
The fly swatter and flashlight are no longer standard items. Hotel rooms today have a huge range of amenities from bath robes to beds for dogs.
I am not suggesting we go back to the 1950s. I appreciate the options and choices while also recognizing that the range of options and choices can create stress. We must be careful about having too many things we have to have.
If you have time, and want to make this choice, you can watch a very insightful one hour video of Barry Schwartz talking at Google on The Paradox of Choice - Why More is Less. In this video Schwartz does a wonderful job of outlining the stress created by endless choice.
Returning to the Holiday Inn hotel analogy, what are the 3 key standard items you make room for (values, software, people, actions, etc)? What do you need in each of these “rooms” of your life:
- on your computer
- in your work
- in your leisure
- in your office
- in your vehicle
- in your health
- in your relationships
- in your wallet or purse
Remember: check out time is noon. I would be intrigued to see your 3 standard items for one of the above categories.
David Zinger’s 3 key standard items in work are: meaningful contributions, playfulness, and creative partnerships while on his computer he needs: a browser, Word, and a search engine.
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POSTED IN: management, principles, productivity
2 opinions for Don’t lose your keys: What’s in your room and the Paradox of Choice
Daniel
Aug 11, 2007 at 5:06 am
I couldn’t understand some parts of this article Slacker Manager, but I guess I just need to check some more resources regarding this, because it sounds interesting.
David Zinger
Aug 11, 2007 at 5:57 am
Hi Daniel:
The essence of the article was to narrow down all the choices and decision by only having a few keys. Have you ever had a key chain with so many keys you cannot find the key to unlock the door. The same with other elements of our lives, have a few keys so you can remember them and find them and use them. It was no “deeper” than that.
David