Overthinking

The creative brain is a fantastic thing. Many of my clients are solutions imagineers in some way. Seeing the possibilities, making the impossible possible. I find their company rewarding and stimulating. But the creative brain comes with some challenges of its own. One of those challenges is a propensity to overthink.

Let’s be clear on one thing. This isn’t rumination. Rumination is about the past and the tendency to rerun previous experiences and imagineer different outcomes or analyse performance. I’ll write about that in another article. 

This article is about the future. Here overthinking is often about trying to gain control over future outcomes. Trying to engineer what we want things to look like. In trying to take a measure of control for ourselves over this we run the risk of attempting to take control from others. It’s a total waste of time. It doesn’t work other than to create the temporary illusion that we have a greater degree of control over our future and our place in that future than we actually do. In trying to create greater autonomy for ourselves we are often unintentionally diminishing autonomy in others. 

Often we find ourselves approaching the same issue from different angles or perspectives, rerunning the overthinking programme and playing with all the delicious possibilities. It’s often just brain food. The reality is that the creative brain often ends up simply processing garbage. We end up thinking ourselves to a stand still. Or the brain gets bored, having exhausted all the possibilities, it loses interest, or ends up in analysis paralysis. Running and rerunning the same scenarios and questions like endless daily, sometimes hourly TV repeats.

The idea of whether I could run my lawnmower on porridge oats to save money could be exactly the sort of thing that will fire both my interest and imagination but does it really serve? Where is the benefit, other than to absorb bandwidth, interest and attention that could be better employed elsewhere. For the ADHD brain, it’s not about how we spend our time, it’s about how we spend our attention. So how we direct our attention needs to be intentional. Anything that can support that intentionality is an important support. Overthinking is easily capable of filling the entire brain space. Ever realised that you’ve been staring at something without seeing it for minutes at a time. Yeah, that’s overthinking taking up so much brain space that the brain is no longer processing what your eyes are seeing. It’s actually a form of hypnotic trance. That trance state actually feels really good, doesn’t it. Wow! The hyperfocus. The clarity, the perception, the vision! If only I could get into this state intentionally I could live in this brain space forever!

Er.. No actually. Real life will get in the way. The toast is burning. Or your partner will ask you to remember to buy milk or something and the mind palace that you have just created will evaporate completely and forever. You may have just worked out how to split the atom in your kitchen microwave or reverse engineer cheese into grass but now it's all totally lost.

One very important skill here in trying to manage a tendency to overthink is the ability to pay attention to what we are paying attention to. Being aware of when we are trying to do something and we realise that our brain is trying to pull us away towards something else. That’s the instant gratification monkey trying to take control of our attention and often drag us towards the dark playground. See Tim Urban

Overthinking can be procrastination in disguise. It can be the brain pulling us away from what we actually want to intentionally pay attention to because the brain is not interested or motivated enough to do the ‘thing’. In front of the ‘thing’ may lurk a 'Wall of Awful'  that is holding us back and preventing us from gaining sufficient traction.

So, you’re probably thinking, ‘well, this is just great Tony. Resonating all the way pal, but some solutions?’

Use an external storage system - keep a pad on the desk just so you can note down the things you need to think about later and this includes inspiring topics to overthink. That way it’s captured. Coming back to it later means that you can intentionally decide to invest your attention in whatever it is that has suddenly peaked your interest.You can approach it in a more structured way. Often the time gap means that you lose interest. The topic loses importance or relevance. Which is a good thing because it means that precious attention is not wasted.

Focus on what you have control over - Often our overthinking is done around things that exist outside our zone of control. We need to remind ourselves to focus on what we have control over so we can lovingly, compassionately and intentionally release the rest.

Multi-tasking is a myth - task switching reduces our effectiveness and productivity. Each switch requires a mini transition out of one task and another mini transition into another. Reducing the possibility of having to task switch and reducing distractions helps.

Does it benefit, is it necessary? - key questions. Yes, it’s interesting but does it actually serve a purpose? Is the purpose worth investing attention in. How much attention? For how long? 

Brain dumping - this is my brain dump on overthinking because it has my attention right now. Which is good because it’s going to become a blog post. Which is useful, so it serves a purpose, and it has containment because it’s nearly time for lunch so it’s time limited.

Filter the information coming in - Treat your attention like the valuable resource it is. Use it intentionally. Be selective about the stuff you allow your brain to work on. Be prepared to say ‘this is interesting, but this does not serve me’. Out loud if you need to. Be self-compassionate in bringing your attention back to your intention.

The ability to redirect attention isn’t easily acquired. It takes awareness and practice but as you gain in proficiency you also gain in productivity. Increasingly you will find yourself able to focus the power of your brain onto the things that really matter. The rewards are great.

Photo by jose aljovin on Unsplash