Thinking Out Loud – Episode 12

This is the twelfth episode in a series called Thinking Out Loud. In these videos, Armando Lanuti, the President of Creative Works, shares some of his thoughts on business, leadership, growth, operations, and anything else on his mind. Below is a transcript of some of the points he discusses in the video.

Hey everybody. I hope all is well.

I wanted to chat with you a little bit from a business owner’s perspective on something that I find very important and that is how to plan your day.

One of the things that sometimes comes up is business owners, you’re the janitor, you’re the firefighter, you’ve got to put out this fire, that fire, clean up this mess, give advice and more on that goes on.

And it’s really easy to get caught up and go from 10 in the morning to 4 o’clock in the afternoon and find that you’ve completely lost your day.

And so, one of the things I want to recommend is that you break up your day into chunks, try and focus on the things that are most important in the morning.

So what I try and do is I try and prioritize and execute the top 3, 4, 5 things, whatever it is that I have to get done on a given day that are the most important as early in the day as I possibly can. That way I can knock those unimportant items out before my day escapes me.

The other thing that a lot of people don’t realize is that there is something very real about a topic called decision fatigue.

And that is just that ability that, as the day goes on, you get to the end of it and you feel worn out, you feel tired, you feel like you’ve been making decisions every day.

How many of you have been in a discussion with your wife or your significant other or your husband and said, “I don’t care what we eat for dinner, I just want food, I just want nourishment.”

It doesn’t matter what it is because it’s one less decision you have to make.

And that decision fatigue really sets in because the average adult makes 35,000 decisions every single day. And when you’re making that many decisions about how you’re going to get to work, what clothes you’re going to wear, what you’re going to eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner, etc…

They can all add up, who you’re going to meet with and when.

And so, I like to try and find ways to try and reduce some of the decisions that I have to make in a given day. So for example, a lot of people, they love to see me at tradeshows. They comment on my electric blue suede shoes, on my bright colored shirts and they say “I’m peacocking.”

And I do do that for a tradeshow and it’s fun and I like to dress up, but, here every day in the office most of the time, you’re going to find me in a plain black or grey t-shirt, something very simple and something that’s cheap, easy, I’m comfortable in it, it’s neutral, it goes with anything, it’s just one less thing I have to worry about on a daily basis.

Or even something basic as a hat, right?

I love the Black Clover brand. Live lucky as a philosophy, I got 4 different colors of the same hat. Why?

I don’t have to think about that, I know they’re comfortable, it’s a brand I like and it’s going to go with whatever I put on.

So, just some suggestions on what you can do to try and minimize some of your decisions on a daily basis so you can focus the energy that you have on those things that are the most important.

So, have a wonderful day and we’ll take to you soon.