One of the earliest decisions that we make in the morning is picking out the clothes that we will wear for the day. This decision is a common procrastinator to starting the day.
When you finally make a decision, you look back on it throughout the day and debate whether or not the right decision was made. This is also a form of procrastination, which is great if you are trying to avoid the responsibilities.
A legend is told about Albert Einstein around coffee bars that he bought nine of the exact same suit and left his house the exact same way he did the day before, which excited a person constantly trying to save minutes: me.
I challenged myself for the month of November to only wear one outfit: a black t-shirt, black jeans, black hoodie and a black winter coat. The reasoning behind it is that I wanted to be as efficient with my time, money and mind-space as possible, but the outcomes vary.
I took a lot of precautions in participating in this experiment. I knew that because of my work schedule I might not always get a clean outfit for the next day so I made sure my hygiene was always kept up.
This meant taking two showers a day, avoiding greasy foods, steering away from strenuous activities and not working out as much. When I did work out, I would do it in my home with little to no clothes on.
The clean clothes aspect was always a concern of mine. I am not the neatest person, but I like putting on freshly washed and dried clothes, especially during the colder months. However, I did not want to waste water and electricity every single day.
I remedied this problem by doing other people’s laundry; occasionally, when I was staying at other people’s houses, I would suggest letting me do their laundry for them, as long as they did not mind me throwing my clothes in. When I did not have time to wash my outfit, I would have to wear my dirty clothes for a day or two.
Toward the end of the month, I had worn the same clothes without washing them for four days.
It was probably one of the grossest things that I have ever done. I remember contemplating whether it was worth it at all.
The results are interesting because I found myself waking up at the same time that I was already waking up at, but now I was making food in the kitchen instead of grabbing some cereal and a banana to-go.
Surprisingly, nobody really noticed that I had been wearing the same outfit every day. Maybe they would not tell me to my face that they had seen me wearing the same outfit every day out of fear I might be upset over their comments.
Overall, the experiment has made me a lot more conscientious about how much an article of clothing can and should be worn.
I would not recommend trying this, or maybe you should. Who knows? Maybe you can save a few minutes like Einstein and I.
