Whenever we see a button, we are eager to press it because we know something will happen. This is true in most cases, for example on a doorbell and on the "on/off" button on the TV. But some buttons are actually fake , like the “close” button on a lift.

Many people are in the habit of pressing the “close” button because they don't have the patience to wait for the lift doors to shut. But lifts “close” buttons are a complete trick, at least in the US-the doors will not close any faster no matter how hard you press.

It started in the 1990s when the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed in the US, making sure that all lifts stayed open long enough so that people with disabilities could enter. Only US firefighters and repairmen can use the buttons to speed up the door-closing process if they have a code or special keys.

But to normal lift riders, the buttons aren't completely useless. According to psychologists, fake buttons can actually make you feel better by offering you a sense of control. "Perceived (能够感知的)control is very important. It reduces stress and increases well-being," Ellen J. Langer, a psychology professor, said, “Having a lack of control is connected with depression (抑郁).”

Experts have expressed that a lot of buttons that don't do anything exist in our lives for this same purpose. For example, many offices in the US have fake thermostats (温度调节器)because people tend to feel better when they think they can control the temperature in their workspace.

But Psychologists found it interesting that even when people are aware of these little “white lies”, they still continue to push fake buttons because as long as the doors eventually close, it is considered to be worth the effort.

“That habit is here to stay,” John Kounios, a psychology professor, said, “Even though I have real doubts about the traffic light buttons, I always press them. After all, I've got nothing else to do while waiting. So why not press the button in the hope that this one will work?”

Sachin oza always seemed to catch whatever cold and flu germs were flying around. Despite being only in his mid-thirties, he felt out of shape and out of sorts. He realized that if he didn’t make some changes, his immune function would continue worsening with age. “I have a family background of diabetes, high cholesterol, and heart disease,” adds Oza. “I had to take action.”

But Oza’s lifestyle stood in the way. He clocked long days working in finance in London, with little opportunity to be active or focus on his well-being. His commute from his home in Orpington, Kent, to the office was stressful and time-consuming, and he was spending far too many hours stuck behind his desk.

Oza’s increasingly sedentary (久坐不动的) lifestyle had repercussions. In addition to catching bugs easily, he lacked energy, his body ached, and he felt lethargic. “My immune system was really weak,” recalls Oza. “I knew that I shouldn’t be feeling this way before even hitting 40.”

So he began a 15-year journey to examine his health fully. He conducted some changes to his diet, introducing more raw fruits and vegetables and cutting down on junk food. He started going for runs and began regular training, resistance training, and stretching. He also became interested in mindfulness, practising deep-breathing and meditation.

Now 49, Oza feels like a new man. “I catch colds far less frequently than before,” he says. His aches and pains have eased, his stress levels are lower, and he sleeps soundly. “I no longer wake up in the early hours, which has made a huge difference in how I feel.”

There are many factors affecting the immune system that we can’t control — ageing weakens our immune function, for example, and we have individual genetic differences that affect how we deal with diseases.

Amazon sells 1,161 kinds of toilet brushes. I know this because I recently spent an evening trying to choose one of them for the bathroom in my new apartment. Nearly an hour later, after having read countless contradictory(矛盾的) reviews and considering far too many choices, I felt tired and simply gave up. The next day, I happily bought the only toilet brush the local dollar store offered.

Too many choices exhaust us, make us unhappy and lead us to sometimes flee from making a decision altogether. Researcher Barry Schwartz calls this “choice overload”. And it’s not just insignificant details like which brush to wipe the inside of the toilet with — having too many choices in our creative and professional lives can lead us to avoid making important decisions.

Understanding how and why we make decisions can perhaps help us make better choices down the line. We make poorer decisions when we are tired. It’s caused by decision fatigue(疲劳). The mind can only sort through so many choices and make so many choices before it starts to run out of steam. That’s why impulse buys like candy bars and magazines at the checkout aisle in the grocery store can be hard to resist. We’ve exhausted all our good decision-making skills.

The same goes for our workday. Making lots of decisions not only exhausts us; it can put us in a bad mood. That’s why it’s necessary to make your most important decisions in the morning rather than at the end of an exhausting day when your energy has been used up. The idiom “sleep on it” is indeed effective when it comes to making big decisions.

When we’re tired, we tend to conserve our energy by making choices based on a single factor like price, rather than considering all the other determinants that go into making the best decision. When you’re doing this, you are acting as what researchers call a cognitive miser(小气鬼).

To conclude, letting yourself have fewer choices to choose from can help you arrive at a more creative answer.