Analysis Paralysis deleted this post.

Earlier today, I sat down to write a blog post about a topic. However, the problem is that I can’t tell you what that topic was. I forgot because of what happened after I sat down.

Once I was ready to start writing, I immediately got distracted. My brain kindly informed me that I have two blogs. One under this domain name and one under the Twitter handle that I am using. So it demanded to know where I was going to post the blog post.

Easy. I’m posting it on stevenzeegers.me. That’s where all my blog posts end up. How is this even a question?

My brain wasn’t satisfied with that answer. It told me I needed to consider all the angles. Was I really super sure that was the best approach?

That’s when the analysis paralysis kicked in

In case you don’t know what paralysis analysis is, let me try to explain. You’re asked to make a decision between two things. Which is a normal thing my fellow humans do every day. Instead of making a choice, however, my brain then decides it’s time to analyze the situation. Over and over and over again. Have I looked at it from every angle? But what do I do in that one scenario? What if I’m wrong. Why am I ruling out the other option? In the end, you end up in a cycle where you can’t stop thinking but don’t come to a conclusion either.

In the end, that mostly means that people who have this problem say “Well, I can’t decide. It’s too hard, so there’s no point in trying.” It’s not because they are indecisive, or don’t know what they want. Their mind just won’t let go of the “decision” and will prevent them from making one.

Unfortunately, I suffer from this problem a lot. It often kicks in when I need to make decisions about personal projects. Instead of writing a blog post, I’ll end up overanalyzing my blog strategy, read material to support a decision, try to consult online sources… These things don’t really help. In fact, sometimes I’ll be overanalyzing a situation for which I’ve already established an answer.

It’s simple. I’m going to post it on stevenzeegers.me and that’s that. The other domain has another purpose. But when your mind doesn’t accept that answer, that’s when the “fun” begins. It can be quite damaging to your productivity. I mean, look at this blog post. I lost two hours coming to a decision what “strategy” was better, while the blog I didn’t choose gets updates once a year. So why was it even a question?

Because that’s the way my brain chooses to operate.

I suspect that it’s also partially why I’m holding onto a ton of projects I don’t work on and domain names I will never use. If I keep all of them, and tell myself that I will use them eventually, I don’t have to make a decision. Because when it comes to making a decision, nothing ever gets done as the paralysis kicks in.

This inability also affects smaller things than me pretending to care about personal branding. Of course there’s the cliché of not knowing what I want for dinner. Which is extra fun if I’m supposed to fix dinner for myself. But it also happens when I’m in my car and have to go to a grocery store. Which one? It doesn’t matter. Wellllll, it kind of does because I can’t make that decision.

If you have reached the end of this blog post, I’m sorry. I am sure that the blog post which was originally supposed to be here would have been infinitely more interesting than this rambling blog post about how my brain sometimes refuses to cooperate. Which is why I refer to it in third person. Why won’t you ever play nice, brain?

Anyway. Rain check on that blog post, whatever the topic was?