Don't Overthink It: Make Easier Decisions, Stop Second-Guessing, and Bring More Joy to Your Life

by Anne Bogel

It’s one thing to value high standards, but there’s a difference between high standards and perfection.

My line was a bit shaky, and I commented that the paint job wasn’t turning out the way I’d hoped. He laughed and said that’s the problem with painting your own house—you’re not as happy with the result as you would be if you weren’t the one doing the painting. “If someone else did the hard work, you’d think it looked great,” he said. “But when you’re the painter, you’re acutely aware of every single place you goofed. You can do a good job and still feel like you messed it up.”

Creating an imperfect product helps developers determine if pursuing a perfect version is even worth it. Not everything is worth doing perfectly.

To get my literal house in order, and to keep my physical environment from sabotaging me, I often repeat a simple mantra: complete the cycle, which is basically a fancy way of saying “finish what you start.” A Modern Mrs Darcy blog reader said that in her family, they call this “taking it through the hoop.”

Open cycles consume mental energy, occupy brain space, and beg us to monitor them as “jobs in progress.” Our brains get anxious when too many cycles remain open, because it takes energy to maintain them.

When we’re facing two good options, we don’t need more time. We need to move on.

It’s a mistake to give all your thoughts equal weight. Some thoughts do not deserve to be taken seriously, so don’t dignify them with a response. That only serves to empower them,

Even former President Obama, spurred by the research on decision fatigue, chose to wear only gray or blue suits while in office. “I’m trying to pare down decisions,” he told Michael Lewis in a Vanity Fair interview. “I don’t want to make decisions about what I’m eating or wearing. Because I have too many other decisions to make.”