Tag Archives: project

When Thinking is Too Much

I think too much.  Just like the Paul Simon song – “Maybe I Think Too Much”.  There are times when I can not control the direction my thoughts will take.

When I have things to get done, I have to build a careful plan.  I need to consider every aspect of what I need to do, and set priorities for each thing.  This helps me get thru tasks without having to rethink them too much.

So I have a sort of outline for the day – when to think about what.  I can put off thinking about something, if I schedule when to think about it, and I already know the basics.  It works pretty well for me usually.  (“when” means in what order, not what time).

If I do not plan, and control where my thoughts go, and when, then my brain runs rampant, and I can not control where it goes.  All other considerations get pushed aside.  I get stuck in a loop of over thinking.

So this plan works… some of the time.

The problem comes when something upsets the “plan”.  It can be any of a number of things (yes… zero is a number, but I mean a bigger number).  Once that happens, everything falls apart, and the planning has to start from scratch.  And that usually means planning on the fly, which is almost always doomed to failure.

Last second planning takes on a life of it’s own.  My mind becomes swamped with some new direction of thought.  And I can not control where it will go.  But for sure, the old plan is dead.

This is how things I really want to do, don’t get done.  Those things invariable fall to the end of whatever “list” I might have, and those things usually do not get done at all.  There will not be enough energy to fill in for that planning by late in the day.

Sometimes the upheaval is so strong that I end up getting nothing done, because the planning stage burns me out, and I shut down.  This happens a lot!!

This is where most of my least productive days come from.  One small event, and the whole thing – water, tub, and baby – all get thrown out, and I fail.

Sadly… this is one of the things I had been working on in session before it’s early demise.  I will slowly figure it out though – it actually is a lot better than it used to be.  Removing the grocery shopping has taken away a lot of my Stoppers.  That alone accounted for at least 2 lost days per week.

But I can not eliminate all the Stoppers, so I need to find a way to deal with them.  I will keep looking.

He’s Making a List, and Checking it 834 Times….

Well… maybe not 834 times, but each of my lists contain things that have to be very carefully thought out – whether it’s a shopping list, or a to-do list.  I don’t even write something down unless I know what it means.  And to me, the includes knowing every step to completing that one thing.

It works.  I can work off the list, and not get too anxietied out by having to figure things out as I am working.  That is the worst thing that can happen, because it drain energy very quickly… I may not even be able to finish that one thing.

This all works for me.  The process is reasonable, lowers anxiety, and gets things done. 

The problem comes when suddenly I have to add something important to the list.  This does not work very well.  It means I have to think thru something new.  Often I do not have time to think it thru thoroughly.  But if I don’t have time for that, it can make the whole house of cards fall in.

And if the new item has too many things that have to be figured out, it can make everything fall apart even before it gets started.  Then nothing happens.

Okay… I get that this is not a permanent way to deal with lists of things to be done.  It works for now, but it will have to evolve over time.  This is not a very high priority for me to deal with right now.  I have to figure out where to put my energies, and since this works (mostly), I will stick with it for a while.