Have you ever felt that your brain is in the mode of thinking about every possible scenario and complex issue and you trying to solve everything in your brain? This is overthinking. Overthinking is the biggest productivity killer, but planning can help. How planning can help with overthinking?
Hi, I am Prakhar. Today I’ll be talking about overthinking and how it traps you. I have recently started writing one article a day in the morning. And I was stuck on what to write about. I have been thinking about ChatGPT, Arduino, Product design, How the universe is made, and whatnot. Then I realized that I am in the trap now.
When I realized that I am overthinking, I decided to write about overthinking. I had gotten over my overthinking fast because I have a system and I started following it.
Overthinking, Tasks, and Analysis Paralysis
As Tony Robbins wrote – The classic overthinking definition is, “to think about something too much or for too long.” So when does thinking become overthinking? It’s when you can’t seem to turn your concerns off. It’s when you think so much, you become paralyzed – unable to actually make a decision or take any action. And it’s never good for you. (Source: https://www.tonyrobbins.com/mental-health/how-to-stop-overthinking/ )
Overthinking and the completion of the task have a very toxic relationship. When you have any task at hand and you start thinking about each and everything, run every scenario in your head. The thing which comes with overthinking is analysis.
Analysis skill is good and can be very useful. But when it makes you paralyzed then is named Analysis paralysis.
As per Wikipedia – Analysis paralysis (or paralysis by analysis) describes an individual or group process where overanalyzing or overthinking a situation can cause forward motion or decision-making to become “paralyzed”, meaning that no solution or course of action is decided upon within a natural time frame.
(Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analysis_paralysis )
Analysis paralysis traps you in the cycle of thinking and never lets you take any action.
Reason for Overthinking a task
Today I’ll be only touching on the overthinking related to your work. There many types of overthinking and there are multiple reasons for that.
Overthinking can be caused due to perfectionism. Perfectionism is nothing but fear of failure. Sometimes you keep on analyzing the task before even starting it. You want it to be perfect and want to think in advance of everything. Which is humanly impossible.
You can read more about perfectionism and how to escape from it.
Frequent overthinking and not taking action is also a sign of executive dysfunction. Where your brain wants to do everything but your body just bails on you.
Learn the tools which help my executive functions up and running.
How systems and planning can help you?
If you have any task in hand, let’s say writing an article every day, subdivide the task into tiny pieces. To write an article you need a topic to start with. Make a sheet where you can just sit and write all the ideas for 15 minutes for next week.
Select your tool for writing. I use my laptop and simple Microsoft Word for writing. It is an offline tool and I do not need any internet to write. I keep my files on One Drive which syncs over the internet so It automatically creates a backup.
I have made a template for writing an article so that I do need not to think about how I should write the article. I have removed all the other thinking processes. While I am writing I am only thinking about the next letter and the next word. There is also a pen and paper exercise which I do if start going into the trap. I just do the brain dump on paper. It clears my brain and lets me do some action so my body is in action mode rather than just thinking mode.
Conclusion
In conclusion, whenever you are overthinking start writing down whatever you are thinking. Writing will act as a brain dump and leave you with a clear mind. Your brain will go from just thinking to some action mode. It will start slowing down and start focusing on writing. Then start planning and subdividing your tasks into tiny pieces. If you do some tasks in patterns, then create templates, checklists, etc to make the process hindrance free. Make the process easy where you can just start working on a task at hand. Remove all the clutter between thinking and action. Just sit down and start ticking your checklist, no overthinking.
Learn the tools which help my executive functions up and running.
You can read more about perfectionism and how to escape from it.
Have you tried any other techniques?