Ever received the good old ‘not enough storage’ and had to delete 1,000 duplicates of the same pictures with a slightly different pose, or angle?

What duplicate photos are to your storage, overthinking is to your mental space. One thought, a thousand different nuances of it sucking up your brain.

The less mental space, the less energy. The less energy, the less perceived time available.

You can time optimize the sh.t. out of your life, if you don’t address your biggest energy leaks, it won’t be effective.

You have to regain the time you waste in your head.  

This Friday, let’s talk time optimization, the mindset way.

I appreciate you for reading,

O.

Overthinking: an energy vampire

Over-thinkers, perfectionists, with a tendency to doubt themselves leak a lot of energy (and hence time) through exactly that: overthinking, perfecting, and self-doubting.

A picture is worth a thousand words, here’s a time pie with and without overthinking.

Time you spend overthinking and manufacturing problems are time you could be doing something else, likely more fun and meaningful.

How does one get rid of this energy vampire? (no garlic needed)

1 - Notice the price you’re paying for it

Here’s the thing, we stay stuck in our ways because we think the benefit of it outweighs the cost (overthinking may take time but feels safer for instance).

On top of being fun for me to create (who doesn’t love Canva?), these charts serve a clear purpose: highlight the cost of your overthinking.

Pay attention to the many times you overthink. Observe how much time and energy you’ve spent relative to the outcome. Ask yourself: was it worth it?

2 - Notice and adjust

Once we become aware of something it’s easier to adjust. It works like noticing a language tic.

1 - First we know it’s here, but we don’t quite realize it.

2 - Someone or something makes us aware of its existence and mostly the cost associated with it (hopefully my beautiful designs did just that)

3 - We keep noticing it aftermath, in both others and ourselves. That’s the frustrating stage, you know the cost and you watch yourself continue to spend recklessly.

4 - We start catching ourselves earlier and earlier on. We realize we are overthinking in the middle of it and can adjust before it’s done.

5 - We catch ourselves just before and feel proud of ourselves for it.

6 - We become aware of that pattern in another area of our life and redo the cycle, or move on to another pattern.

Overthinking is a coping mechanism to avoid certain feelings. Be curious, observe which feeling you’re trying to avoid, and *gasp* let them surface. Once they’re out, they’re much less scary, and, more importantly, they pass.

What may happen - disclaimer

Not overthinking will feel empty, and challenge your self-trust. Am I still competent if I don’t overthink everything? (spoiler alert you are, you do even better when you don’t overthink)

You’ll likely feel like you’ve forgotten something but can’t recall what. It’s uncomfortable because it’s new. Only until you make it your new normal though.

Why it’s worth doing

Reward at play is more time. The time you spend overthinking will be available for other things.

It expands beyond that though. Reducing overthinking on the small things, will increase your self-trust, which will lead to a virtuous circle of increased self-confidence and decreased overthinking (on bigger and bigger things)

A client shared this with me:

One nudge for you

In the next few days, set an intention to observe the overthinking leaks and adjust.

1. Look for instances where you spend too much time on one idea or task.
   A good way to evaluate if you’re overthinking (vs a creative or strategic iterating process): is it draining, or is it fun? If it’s draining, you’re overthinking it.

2. Start by adjusting the small, little-to-no-stake instances (where to go for dinner, the content of a message, etc.)

3. Give yourself a short time frame to act or make a decision

4. Notice and enjoy the reward of not overthinking

5. Do it all over again

If you want to gain even more time, I highly recommend following Amanda Goetz. Her tips on time organization have made my life x10 better.

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I offer mindset and leadership coaching, if you want to explore ways to improve your mindset and develop your leadership skills, let’s chat!