Overthinking is the secret to not getting anything done

It is ironic that as I'm about to write a post on the dangers of overthinking I'm spending much too long pondering the title and the best way to start. It's a great way to not get a post published this week either. But I'd rather get something subpar out than nothing at all. Umm, I mean, this post is a great work of literature which is well worth your time and money. (Don't worry about the money part for now. That's a problem for the future you.)

Do Newton's laws of motion explain human nature as well as they explain the physical universe? I think they do. "Every action has an equal and opposite reaction" is fairly self-evident. Reciprocity is the basis for many a human interaction. Through human history we have made laws to mete out equal punishment for crimes. Hammurabi's code demanded an eye for an eye. Selena Gomez wants us to kill [our detractors] with kindness (even if they don't die they'll be hella confused). Secretary of State (and later president) Thomas Jefferson also cited this principle to fellow Founding Father James Madison as the reason he was resigning from his post to form a new political party, after losing an epic rap battle against Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton. At least that's what I learned from the play Hamilton, which is undoubtedly historically accurate, because of all the rhymes. (And I learned from The Lego Movie that all declarations that rhyme must be true.)

For today, I am more interested in Newton's law of intertia  -- "An object at rest will remain at rest, and an object in motion will remain in motion, unless acted on by some external force." This explains productivity, and the lack of it, so well. When you're at rest -- when you haven't even started -- it takes a lot of effort to get started. It's much easier to put things off for later. To remain at rest. Conversely, when you do start, you generate momentum. That keeps you going. Momentum makes it easier to pick up the next thing, and the thing after that. Once you get in your flow, nothing will stop you. 

What keeps us from starting? What keeps us at rest? It's overthinking and overplanning. It's analysis paralysis. It's the desire for perfection. To get yourself moving, you have to pick a path and go with it. You can make adjustments as you go. You can make improvements in due time. But get started. To move the proverbial mountain, you have to start by moving a small stone.

Coaches of successful sports teams often have the same, boring response when asked about their team's chances to win the championship: "We just want to win the next game." They have a genuine understanding of how championships are won. A game at a time. That's what you have to do. Focus on what's in your control. Win the next game. (Especially if you're playing the Game of Thrones, because if you don't win you will die. In fact, that also applies to The Hunger Games. And Squid Game. This is exactly why I don't play sports.)

"Don't mistake motion for progress," admonishes a poster in my office, with a picture of a rocking horse. Heed this insight! Just because you're doing something doesn't always mean you're making progress. If you're spending all your time reading background information or collecting materials for the task at hand, you haven't really started. You're just rocking back and forth. You're still at rest relative to where you should be. (And Einstein and relativity enter the fray, for you physics nerds out there who are hung up on the fact that Newton's laws don't apply at the quantum level or whatever. But maybe relativity doesn't work this way. I don't know; I only did a semester of physics in college! Don't @ me.) To move forward, you have to work on the task itself. Making a small percentage of progress on the task is infinitely preferable to compiling piles of information on how to get the task done. Only the former will actually lead to getting the task done. The latter is disguised procrastination. It will make you feel better about yourself only until you realize you had misunderstood the task all along when you hadn't started. Or that with all the time you spent planning you left yourself no time at all to get the task done.

Time is precious. (As the show The Good Place points out, the definition of heaven is time with our loved ones.) Overthinking steals time away from us. And on top of that it leads to stress. The thoughts themselves can be stressful. The lack of action can cause us to fall behind which can lead to more stress. The anxiety can lead to depression which can lead to severe health problems. It's just the gift that keeps on giving. 

Just reminding yourself to not overthink things can work wonders. The chess grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura, considered the best blitz (3 and 5 minute) chess player of all time, does this often in his streams. "Why am I thinking?" he chastises himself if he finds himself taking too long to move. "Just make a move!" And he plays chess! It's a game that's supposed to require thinking! And we lesser mortals overthink little details that should require no thought at all. Let's stop with all that. Learn from me. I am putting no thought into this conclusion. Adios! Go do something! <Insert insightful sentence with joke here!>