You’ve just said YES, congratulations!! Now it’s time to start planning. Where...when...who...

Did you know that According to Columbia Business School professor Sheena Iyengar, Americans make 70 conscious choices on a day on average??

With wedding planning, there are SO many decisions to make, many you are making daily to ensure you stay on a particular timeline. Wedding planning is a revolving door of decisions. There are layers upon layers upon layers of decisions to make.

So, how do we get over this barrier of being indecisive and just commit to one decision and be okay with that decision. Here's what I suggest:

LIMIT YOUR OPTIONS

The context in which a decision is to be made seems to affect the ability to make decisions. One of those contexts is the number of options available and the way/order in which options are presented. As the number of options increase, the simplicity in making a decision decreases.

Don't make a list of 500 of your favorite venues (okay, yes, that's an exaggeration, but you get my point). Don't even make a list of 10 venues. Start with 5 and narrow it down from there. It is MUCH easier to evaluate options when there are few and they are easily distinguishable. The point - when you've got 500 venue options, you'll feel like you need a full-service planner professional to tell you all the pros and cons of them all - with only 5, you'll feel like the pro yourself, saying yay or nay with ease! Believe in yourself.

Now, here's my second suggestion:

EAT

Yep, eat.

When you go to the store on an empty stomach you buy and eat this...

Have you ever gone grocery shopping on an empty stomach? EVERYTHING looks appealing and so, you either buy everything or nothing because you can't decide what you feel like eating. The same goes for wedding planning. Let me school you for 2 seconds:

Fuel for your brain comes from glucose.

Glucose comes from food you consume.

No food = no glucose = bad decisions.

...when you should be eating a real meal like this

If you're tired and low on brain function, making any kind of decision will stress you out even more. You'll really experience what's known as decision paralysis and regret any decision made in haste. So my friend, eat something - and make it a good meal like this -->

So far, I’ve suggested limiting the number of decisions and eating - here's my final tip:

SLEEP ON IT AND MAKE A DECISION IN THE MORNING

Don’t try and make these decisions at night. Bad move. Your cognitive resources are likely depleted after a long day of work. You’re mentally exhausted and the last thing you want to do is think about who to remove from your guest list to get the count below 150.

From my personal experience, I've had great success getting my clients to make decisions -first thing in the morning. After resting the brain with a good night’s sleep, whether it was during the week or on the weekend, it was always a breeze to get a yay or nay. If you absolutely must make some decisions in the evening, make them the small decisions and save the big ones for the morning.

What are your strategies for making important decisions?

I’d love to get your feedback! Leave a comment or email me at dunniweddings@gmail.com.

Avoid decision paralysis in 3 steps