The philosopher Sir William Hamilton in 1859 carried out a simple experiment in which he cast down a handful of marbles, varying the number of marbles thrown and attempted to estimate their number visually.  He concluded : If you throw a handful of marbles on the floor, you will find it difficult to view at once more than six, or seven at most without confusion.

Source : Human Memory: Theory And Practice, Revised Edition

Research has shown that our short term memory can only hold 7 +/- 2 items at any one time.  In the above quoted text, we know that when we try to pay attention to more than 7 things at the same time, the mind gets confused.  It is no wonder that we falter when we try to do too many things at the same time.

In recent years, attention spans are even more short-lived with the influx of new information every single moment.  Above all, we live in a world with increasing choices.   Having more choices is sometimes a double-edged sword because we tend to prefer to leave our options open.  This encourages procrastination.

Further, every option you consider opens another set of choices and possibilities.  The permutation of choices become infinite.  Before you know it, you’ll be down with the “paralysis by analysis” bug.

More importantly, when we keep our options open, we introduce variables into our decision making process.  The thing is, decisions to be made are dependent on fixed and variable factors – the more variable factors there are, the more difficult it is to come to a final decision.

Take for example, if you’re looking to buy a new notebook, you have option of going for a lightweight one.  Or a high performance model.  Or a budget model.  Then as you do more research online, you read that the lightweight model fares really badly in terms graphics performance.  Then you read that high performance one has really lackluster battery life.  Later on, you think of the fact that the next operating system is going to be launched soon, and perhaps you should wait for it.  Then again, you might want to use the old operating system so that your existing software works without a hitch.  And as the list keeps going on.

We have to decide to “lock-down” some of these variables in our decision making process.  We need to set a cut-off time for ourselves and make the best decision we can based on the resources that we have at that moment.

To lock down these variables is to block out distractions.  To do this, you have to be very clear of what you want to achieve at the end of the day.

Stop confusing your own mind.  Be clear of what you want, lock down the variables and make your decisions.