Back to all posts
Perfectionism, worry, anxiety, overthinking…
It has lots of names, but all the same impact – not good.
Get out of your head so you can move forward faster as a leader.
"Worry often gives a small thing a big shadow."
7 Ways to Stop Overthinking and Get More Done:
1/ Go Beyond Black and White Thinking
When you think there is are right and a wrong answers… you are putting immense pressure on yourself to choose only the “right” ways forward. In reality… you’re choosing between options with different upsides and downsides. There is no right answer – this is not a math test.
2/ Ditch Perfectionism
You set yourself up to fail when you expect that you must know everything, anticipate everything, and have a fail-proof plan in place before taking any action. Perfect is not achievable, so stop trying. You’ll never get there – ensuring you’ll never progress, and you will stay right where you are.
3/ Right Size the Effort
Not all decisions are worth the time and energy you spend on them. Try the 10/10/10 test. If the outcome of this decision doesn’t work out… how will you feel in 10 weeks, 10 months, 10 years from now? This helps put the potential impact in perspective.
4/ Activate Your Gut
Your brain has lots of information you don’t access consciously – so it doesn’t show up in your thoughts. But when accessed subconsciously – your brain produces its analysis through feelings in the body. This is often referred to as our “intuition” and “gut feel.” That’s because there is a huge neural network in our gut that’s connected to our brain. Tap into this often ignored intelligence and pair with your analysis.
5/ Set Decision Deadlines
Parkinson’s Law says work expands to the time we allow it. Overthinking expands to the time you allow it to. Setting a deadline (and sticking to it) helps you control the time to make a decision. If it helps, have someone else set the deadline so you can’t move it.
6/ Limit Decision Fatigue
You’re more likely to overthink when you are mentally tired. Making decisions drains energy – and you make thousands of decisions in a single day. Create habits and systems in your day, so you don’t have to decide what to do before you do them. Just follow the system.
7/ Quantify The Cost
How much time are you losing because you are spending it thinking about this decision? How many hours? Days? Weeks? What could you have been doing instead to move forward, if you had already made a decision? Overthinking can be a very expensive habit.
Use these tips to stop thinking, and start doing.
“Worry often gives a small thing a big shadow.”
– Sweedish Proverb
