In his brilliant book The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less, Barry Schwartz observes that at beyond a certain point, the privilege of having more choices becomes the burden of having too many choices.  At this point, he writes:

"Routine decisions take so much time and attention that it becomes difficult to get through the day.  In circumstances like these, we should learn to view limits… as liberating not contraining.  …By deciding to follow a rule (for example, always wear a seat belt; never drink more than two glasses of wine in one evening), we avoid having to make a deliberate decision again and again.  This kind of rule-following frees up time and attention that can be devoted to thinking about choices and decisions to which rules don’t apply." — Chapter 11, "What to Do About Choice".

Attention Deficit Disorder + Infinite Choices = Great Lack of Productivity for many ADDexecs.

As business owners and professionals, we have the privilege to choose and the responsibility to choose well.  At times, this can be more curse than blessing.*  Fortunately, there are some answers.  Among them:

(1) read Barry Schwartz’s book, which offers a path to both intellectual and spiritual calm that would be useful to any ADDexec and

(2) delegate and delegate completely.  For those of us with staff, there is great power in telling someone, "Please handle this assignment.  You know what our corporate goals are and you know what we’re trying to get done.  I trust you and I trust your batting average.  Let me know when it’s done or when you really need my input."

Those two items won’t take care of all your worries, but they will help.

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*"Just tell me what to do and I’ll do it!"  Who among us doesn’t remember the joy and relief we get when — now and then — we leave it up to someone else to tell us how to spend our time?  Surely a sign that we know when too many choices and too many responsibilites have made work+thinking = less than fun.