How Churchill avoided decision fatigue by wearing children's clothes
The Second World War was an intense period in world history.
For six long years, men and women around the world gave their lives to their respective nations.
The pressure to win was immense.
Nobody understood this more than Winston Churchill.
Having read Hitler’s manifesto Mein Kampf, he was under no illusion about the ultimate goal of the Nazi war machine.
He also realised that beating Hitler would take not just physical effort but also good decision making.
This requires energy, and the more demanding the decisions, the more you need.
To ensure he conserved his thinking power, Churchill did whatever he could to reduce or eliminate the number of small decisions he made each day.
One of those was deciding what clothes to wear.
To save time choosing his daily outfit, his wife Clementine designed a special suit her husband could wear.
It was designed to be comfortable and flexible and was inspired by infant clothing. It also allowed the Prime Minister to sleep in it when he took his customary afternoon nap.
They were known as “siren suits’ although the British public affectionately referred to them as his “romper” suits.
Many other high-profile leaders have adopted a similar approach to managing decision fatigue.
Steve Jobs wore his trademark black turtleneck, blue jeans and New Balance sneakers every day.
Mark Zuckerberg wears the same t-shirt and hoodie every day.
And, whilst President, Barack Obama dressed in only two suit colours.
In a Vanity Fair interview, he explained why, saying, “You’ll see I wear only gray or blue suits. I’m trying to pare down decisions. I don’t want to make decisions about what I’m eating or wearing. Because I have too many other decisions to make.”
To conserve your energy for the most important ones, consider how many daily decisions you can automate.
After all, sound decisions are rarely made by those running on empty.
Image credit: Hulton Archive / Getty Images
