Do you ever think about the daily small decisions you make that affect your health? Whether to cook or eat out? Whether to get up and work out or save it for the weekend? Well Real Simple has broken a few dilemmas for us. Here are a few of my favorites:

Sleep an Extra Hour or Get Up and Exercise?

Better Choice: Exercise
Contrary to popular belief, a full eight hours of sleep isn’t necessary for good health, but regular exercise is. Studies have shown that people who sleep seven hours a night have a lower mortality rate than those who sleep more than eight hours. And if you have trouble getting up early — for workouts or any other reason — the best solution is…getting up early. “Going outside to exercise in the morning light will help reset your body clock and eventually make it easier to wake up earlier,” explains Shawn D. Youngstedt, Ph.D., a sleep researcher at the University of South Carolina in Columbia.

But… If you’re particularly sleep-deprived — you have a new baby or you’ve been pulling all-nighters while preparing for the bar exam — “it’s not worth sacrificing sleep to exercise,” Manson says. In addition to fatigue and difficulty focusing, inadequate sleep may contribute to depression, obesity, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes, according to the National Sleep Foundation.

Yell at Someone Who Makes You Angry or Go for a Walk to Calm Down?

Better Choice: A walk
There are health benefits to expressing anger, but it’s not always most helpful to do so in the heat of the moment. By removing yourself, even briefly, from the situation, you may be able to gain perspective on what’s been said, why it upset you, and how you’d like to communicate your feelings, says Robert M. Sapolsky, Ph.D., a professor of neuroscience at the Stanford University Brain Research Institute, in Palo Alto, California.

But… If that someone is your spouse or a roommate, yell. Chronically bottling up anger in a close relationship can cause serious communication problems and, according to a study published in the February issue of Circulation, can harm your health.

Watch a Rerun of Friends or an Episode of Jeopardy!?

Better Choice: Jeopardy!
When in doubt, test — don’t rest — your brain. “Mindless is clearly OK now and then and can be very restorative,” Robert Sapolsky says. “But not to the extent to which the average American vegges out in front of the television.” Your brain, like your body, needs lots of stimulation to stay sharp, focused, and healthy. So make sure it gets regular workouts. You can challenge your brain even while you relax by choosing more stimulating television shows, doing crossword puzzles, or playing mind-teasing games, like chess and Cranium.

But… Constant, intense stimulation can become yet another stressor in your life. “It’s not for nothing that roller-coaster rides are not three weeks long,” says Sapolsky, who encourages mixing stimulation with a healthy dose of restful downtime.

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