Many of us don’t even realize that shopping can become one of the most willpower-draining habits that we engage in, every week.
We have to remember that every time we go on shopping, the innumerous numbers of decisions flood our brains. Here are a few simple tips to have a strategy when it comes to decision anxiety related to shopping and make the best of our shopping experiences.
We can use a checklist for our daily staples. Make sure that the list you prepare should contain all the necessary things that you will need on a day to day basis, and never forget to include specific details in the list, like size of the package. Before you go on to the store to buy, remember to check off that things that you already have.
Keeping a running list of all the things we have always helps. This helps us to save ourselves from the dreaded pre-shopping scramble.
You can make a habit of writing down the things as and when you remember that you need them.
Remember to include infrequent staples like toothpaste or like lightbulbs in this list as well. Also remember to purchase birthday gifts and stuff and do add them to the list
You have to add these items in your list soon as you notice that you are running out of them, so when you get down to the store you don’t have to worry about anything other than the things you have listed out.
A very helpful habit here is to pick a brand and sticking with it. It’s more than just brand loyalty, it’s like once you have found the brand that suits you, you can save all the time and effort you put in trying out different brands, it will also save you tremendous cognitive ability. It’s not that hard to zero down to your favorite brand, you can also simply choose to stick with a generic one, just focus not to look at other brands even when you already have one zeroed down, while you shop.
You can also be a little more precise, like you can organize your shopping list basing it on the floor plan of the store you buy your groceries and staples from. The order of the list you have will indicate your path through the span of the store. Choose fresh fruits first, as they mostly are near in the store front, choose frozen veggies later, they are mostly in the back. Stuff your oatmeals in between, because they are kept somewhere in the middle.
Follow this simple trick and you will save yourself from this energy-draining factory called supermarkets.
