Unless your job requires you to wear an actual uniform, deciding what to wear to work will take time out of your morning routine every single day.
The true gravity of this decision depends on how fashion-conscious you are, however…
Every decision you make throughout the day drains a little bit more of your cognitive energy, and will eventually leads to decision fatigue which is a real thing…. BTW listen to episode 35 after this one for the exact time of day to make big decisions.
Getting back on track…Did you know that what you wear can affect your performance and productivity as well?
Scientists call this Enclothed cognition, we’ll get to the scientific research in a second.
While wearing a uniform may sound a little boring, there are some other real practical benefits beyond getting decision fatigue so early in the morning.
- I’ve found is that when making videos or doing any sort of recording I never have to worry about editing things because I have the same thing on.
- It actually greatly helps with branding. After some time people will recognize you by what you wear.
They’ve even talk about it. I’ve resisted mentioning to you Steve Jobs and his black polo beck and jeans combo, but look I just did it and that gave brand recognition to him and likely you just thought of Apple. And Apple just got mentioned in this episode which gives them more publicity.
- You will save time. If you don’t already wear a uniform, tomorrow morning just glace at your watch and see how long it takes you go get dressed. OR how much mental energy you spend thinking about it that morning or even the evening before. That time could have been spent one something more productive.
Now to the science, people say “dress for success” and “dress for the job you want, not the job you have.” There’s truth to both researches from Columbia business school studied what people wear and the affect. The result they call Enclothed cognition. The study was published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology and the researchers conducted a set of experiments. A group of students were given a set of tasks to do — half were given a doctor’s lab coat to wear and half were not. Those wearing the coats were more attentive and focused than those not wearing the coats.
In a second experiment where another group was given a set of tasks to do, everyone was given lab coats to wear — but half were told the coat was a doctor’s coat and half were told it was a painter’s coat. Those wearing the “doctors’ coats” were more attentive and focused in completing the tasks than those wearing the “painters’ coats.”
The bottom line, Galinsky says, is that clothes do affect how we work and act — but just as important is our interpretation of what those clothes mean.
The researched concluded…clothes do affect how we work and act and just as important is you interpretation of what those clothes mean.
Based on all the evidence, don’t go full uni uniform, pick two or three outfits, one for each type of situation, casual, semni causal, dressed up. Make them you’re go to outfits based on what your day looks like.
Give this a try for a few days and see how much space in your head AND time you free up and even how much it can help you and/or your business brand.
Your move
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