Overthinking it

What would life be like if I stopped overthinking everything?

How much extra time would I have in my day if I didn’t re-read every email three or four times to try and make it perfect?

How much better would I feel if I just sent meeting requests when I made them, instead of looking at them and worrying about them before I sent them, wondering if anyone will come to the meeting?

How different would my life be if it was more “do” and less “think”?

I seem to have sunk into the overthinking rut over the past few years, I’m not sure when it started. It’s not procrastination (although I know that beast too); it’s a task almost completed when a voice creeps in and whispers, “What if….” And then I spend time trying to address all those what ifs before I can finish what I’m doing. So a simple task becomes a complex one.

I know it’s fine to spend time thinking, and it’s fine to produce something that is correct and good. But overthinking small tasks is not fine.

I think therefore I am not going to do something immediately.

It should be “I think and then I do and then I am free.”

Maybe I’ll make that my mantra for tomorrow.

But I’ll have to think about it overnight first.