Every single day, you accept decisions that were made for you.

It may be the font on your screen, the layout of your inbox, or the arrangement of the icons on your phone.

Now you may be thinking “No, not me, I’ve selected all of those. I’m an individual!”.

Have you looked at the humidity setting on your fridge or the factory settings on your house’s router? Probably not.

Default choices exist all around us in our lives because they make life easier. These “defaults” usually end up being the most popular option since they are the easiest, lowest friction ones to choose. Just by doing nothing, you choose them.

When you start changing defaults though, you can start making tiny improvements each day to your life that will quickly compound over time.

Do you question defaults? Just look at your browser.

In 2015 a study was run to better understand what impacts employee retention and success.

The hypothesis was that job hoppers (i.e. employees with 5+ jobs in the past 5 years) would be more likely to leave their current job earlier than non-job hoppers. The study ended up finding no correlation between the number of previous jobs and likelihood to leave, but they had access to another dataset: The browser that the applicant applied through.

It turns out employees who applied using a non-default browser (such as Brave or Firefox) ended up staying in their positions for 15% longer. The data also showed that the same employees saw increases in other performance metrics such as total sales made and customer satisfaction.

The theory is that employees who question the default have a higher likelihood of choosing options that would make them more successful. Whether or not it was trying out new sales tactics or exploring a better way to help customers, their mindsets were constantly focused on finding a better way to do something.

How To Use Defaults To Your Advantage

Steve Jobs famously wore one outfit: a black turtleneck, a pair of Levi jeans, and New Balance sneakers. It was his default outfit, and it allowed him to remove the decision making process of what to wear from his schedule. He wore this same outfit for over two decades, and in doing so saved countless hours of time.

While this is extreme, it’s an example of the power that actively adding defaults into your life can have. It commits your future self to a decision and simplifies your choices. These decisions can quickly compound over time and can be used to improve nearly every single area of your life.

Here are my 5 personal favorites defaults:

1. Always have a glass of water or water bottle nearby: Water is great for you, and this will help you drink more. I absolutely love water.
2. Don’t sleep next to your phone. You won’t use it before you sleep and you won’t use it when you wake up. Put your phone charger somewhere far away.
3. Get a phone holder for your car. A small one, but this will guarantee you don’t drive while navigating on your phone.
4. Turn off all notifications on your phone. Nothing on your phone is urgent so you don’t need to be checking it 100+ times a day. If it’s urgent, somebody will call you.
5. Always have an Audiobook or Podcast in que. Whether you’re cleaning, driving, walking, or doing most daily tasks, defaulting to listening to something that is educational or enjoyable is a great way to improve every experience.

This is by no means an exhaustive list and I skipped over some pretty big ones (like having an automatic savings account), but the above are the ones that have had the biggest effects on my life.

How Companies Influence Your Behavior Through Defaults

Companies have a lot to gain, or lose, by changing default choices. The most common way this is done is through opt-in or opt-out choices.

1. Opt-in: You need to actively choose to do something.
2. Out-out: You need to actively choose to NOT do something.

Opt-out options are everywhere. You see them in the form of automatic renewals, pre-checked newsletter signups, or auto-upgrades for your trip. They can sometimes make your life easier, but often they are not in your best interest.

One of the most exploitive opt-out options was created by banks that automatically added overdraft protections to consumers bank accounts.

An overdraft happens when you spend more money in your bank account than you don’t have. Most people (including myself) have done this at least once. While the name “overdraft protection” implies that it will “protect you”, it actually does the opposite. This option made overdrafts more common. Imagine you have a low bank account balance and go buy something with a debit card. Here is what would happen with, and without, overdraft protect:

1. Without overdraft protection, the transaction would be declined. 
2. With overdraft protections, the transaction would be completed but the bank will charges you a fee, usually $35.

Banks made, and still make today, BILLIONS off of overdraft fees. It’s one of their primary sources of revenue and until the government stepped it, it was the default choice for many consumers. Companies that provide free services need to make money somehow. One of the best ways for them to make more money, is to change the default choices you have, which is usually worse for you. They may choose to share your data, opt you into more expensive programs, or hide programs that should be free from you.

Be careful of the defaults that people pick for you. Unless you pick them yourself, you can never be sure that they are in your best interest.