Out of sight is out of mind

Make it easier to resist things you want to minimize

I am pretty visually oriented when it comes to remembering things. When clothes are in drawers or in garment bags, I forget they exist. I once shoved a pack of Sweet Tarts into my desk drawer, where it proceeded to sit for months. The crazy part about this is that I love Sweet Tarts. I can eat through dozens of Sweet Tarts if they’re in front of me, but with them in the desk drawer, it was as if I developed fantastic self-discipline.

I know not everyone’s brain works the same way, but for many of us, visual cues do wind up being good reminders. That’s why nutritionists will tell you to keep a fruit bowl on your counter, or to cut up fruit and veggies and put them on the eye-level shelf in your fridge. You’ll keep seeing those healthy snacks and so you’ll think hey, some grapes sound good right now! And thus you will eat more produce.

How to stop arguing with yourself

The opposite is true too. A dish of peanut butter cups on your kitchen counter might last an hour. Maybe. But a bag of peanut butter cups on the top shelf of your pantry might last for a week or more. It’s not that you needed to swear off the chocolate. It’s just that when you can’t see something, you don’t have to keep arguing with yourself over whether you really want it. When you’re busy and doing something else, you won’t grab a peanut butter cup just because it’s there. You’ll grab the candy when you really want it or are there in the pantry actively pondering what you want to eat. But not when you’re just passing through.

Knowing that “out of sight is out of mind” can help us make other choices easier too.

Do you have a hard time staying off your phone in the evenings? Try plugging your phone into its charger instead of having it with you all evening long. You’ll probably find you spend a lot less time checking email, responding to texts, and scrolling through social media, and a lot more time engaging with the people in your household, reading, or pursuing other hobbies.

Stay blissfully ignorant

Are you trying to spend less time and money shopping online? Unsubscribe from marketing texts and emails. You won’t see a message informing you that your favorite retailer is about to have a big sale, so you won’t have to resist the temptation to go online and shop. It turns out that a sale you don’t know about can be a lot cheaper than a sale you do know about!

You can apply the logic of “out of sight is out of mind” to other people’s environments too. Perhaps your kids, like my kids, have certain books they like that you do not. I’m not saying you need to purge The Giving Tree from your house. But maybe it goes up on the top shelf so the kid only suggests The Giving Tree if they’re really thinking about it. The less annoying books can go on the eye-level shelves where they’ll be chosen more readily.

When you tweak your environment, you can make it easier to choose wisely. Put what you want to do right in front of you. Put what you don’t want to do far out of sight. I’m not saying you’ll never think about it, but you’ll think about it a lot less than when it’s constantly reminding you of its existence every time you turn around.