I wore the same thing every day for 2 months. Here's 5 incredible ways that it CHANGED MY LIFE

I picked up the short-sleeved, collared shirt from the rack and held it up, like proud Mufasa holding up little Simba. It was perfect. Bright colour, floral print. The fit was just right; slender enough that you can tell I’m not overweight, but loose enough that you’re not able to notice my formerly muscular physique slowly melting away into Dad-bod status. (I’m now the proud father of a 12-week-old baby girl.) Only $30! What a deal! I slung it over my shoulder and took two steps towards the register. Stopped.

Why was I doing this? Why was I buying this shirt?

There was truly no need for it. I had more than enough short-sleeve, collared shirts. In fact, with my new wardrobe strategy, I couldn’t even wear my favourites more than once a month, if that.

Backtracking to eight weeks earlier, I had decided to pull the trigger and follow in the footsteps of notables like Steve Jobs, Simon Cowell, and Barack Obama (there’s a trio that I bet were never in the same room). What I mean is that I decided to try wearing the same thing every day. Unlike Jobs, though, my tweak to the strategy was that I was going to leave my weekends open to wear anything my heart desires. (I’m sure there are others that have tried this tweak to the strategy, but until you tell me their names I’m going to claim it as my own.) My company, Eteros, has a relaxed dress code. My CEO Aaron McKellar once told me he didn’t care if I showed up in sweats and a half-shirt. So my work outfit moving forward was going to be an Eteros t-shirt and a pair of jeans. Simple. I had enough of both that I could go the whole week without having to do any laundry, (five t-shirts, 3 pairs of jeans).

After running my experiment for eight weeks, this is what I discovered:

1.    I saved loads of time. I am constantly trying to “optimize” my mornings. One of the ways I do that is before going to bed every night, I have the next day’s clothes laid out, ready to go. The unfortunate side-effect of that strategy is that at the end of every day I was staring uselessly into my closet, trying to figure out what I should wear the next day, while my wife shoots eye-daggers at me from across the room. That’s wasted time I could be using to sleep. Like I mentioned, I have a 12-week-old daughter, so sleep is extremely valuable to me now.  

2.    I have way more space. I love purging. It just feels so good to have less stuff. The less I have, the more streamlined my life feels. Since I’ve been wearing the same outfit for two month, I have no need for 12 dress shirts. Many items in my closet that were in the “yeah I might wear that sometime” category were quickly moved into the “I’m certain I’ll never wear that” group, and donated. Giving to charity feels good too- double bonus!

3.    I removed an annoying decision from my life. “Decision fatigue” is a real thing. The definition is “the deterioration of our ability to make good decisions after long sessions of decision making.” I only have so much creative juice in my body. By the time I made it to the end of my day and was making choices about what to wear the next morning, I probably was making poor choices anyways. Even if I thought I looked cool, it’s possible, even probable, that it was in my head. Removing this decision from my life removed the burden of trying to decide what to wear to look cool.

4.    I could still could be expressive on weekends. I could still wear clothing that made me feel unique a couple days a week. Whatever desire I had to express myself with my apparel was still being fulfilled. In fact, I think I might have unintentionally stepped up my thread game on the weekends. I only had a couple days per week where I could wear my A-lineup, so I was never wearing any of the “filler” clothes anymore.

5.    I saved a lot of money. The endless, rolling acquisition of new clothes costs a lot, even if you aren’t required to wear business-casual or suits. That’s just reality- if you care about your appearance, it’s an expense that adds up quickly. Well, I do care about how I look, and there’s no way around the fact that what you wear makes an instant statement about you anytime you walk into the room. But the baby is expensive too, so this was a great way to offset a small portion of the new baby expenses.

I put the shirt back on the rack, stood back to admire it one last time, and headed off towards the exit. It was a liberating moment. This one minor change to my life saved me time, saved me money, and helped streamline a small portion of my day. I realized then that my two-month experiment was over. By now it had become habit, and I can’t imagine ever going back.