Podcaster Rob Dial Discusses Overthinking

On his personal development-themed Mindset Mentor podcast, host and creator Rob Dial touches on a wide range of topics over the course of each four-program week.  One of his shows last week focused on the problem of overthinking and a technique that Dial has development to combat it.  I agree with him that a problem many people have...more for some of us than for others...is to overanalyze and prepare for things instead of just going out and doing them, as well as allowing distracting thoughts to dilute what we're trying to accomplish.  An example for me is whenever I'm starting to immerse myself in a swimming pool whose temperature is on the unpleasantly cool side.  No point in halfway measures...I make a split decision and get all the way in.  Afterwards I can assess the situation and act accordingly, but I'm not wasting my time trying to outthink the pool!  Lots of folk overthink just about every kind of activity imaginable...Dial asserts that this kind of preparatory extremism may have boded well for people's survival hundreds of thousands of years ago against wild beasts and other dangerous natural occurrences, but in today's environment overthinking can be a burden dragging us down.  His one tip is to get in a state of quite medication somewhere, removing distractions and closing his eyes while keeping at his side a blank sheet of paper and pen.  Inevitably all those stray thoughts start pouring on into conscious awareness and he writes them down as best he can while keeping his eyes closed.  After ten minutes or however long circumstances allow, he stops his meditation and looks at what he has written, prioritizing the thoughts he has jotted down (if they are legible enough, that is) and making an action plan for them, one thought at a time.  Rob Dial says that this has worked for him and by doing this he has been able to reduce his overthinking and enhance his ability to concentrate on whatever happens to be before him at the moment.  I once tried this kind of thing a few years ago while sitting in the car after work in the night darkness and couldn't make out a lot of what I had written...maybe cheating a little by opening my eyes for a peep or two with a hint of light might help, you think?  But don't think too much...