MINDSET

We never stop thinking.

You still cannot stop thinking when reading these words, sipping your favorite coffee, or even sleeping. Meditation and yoga are two activities that promise to help you relax the mind and bring consciousness. However, there is a common misconception that these activities can help us stop thinking.

“Meditation is not stopping thinking. Only until you die do your thinking stop. Meditation is about training the mind to be laid-back, stay restful, and gently pull itself back whenever it wanders.” — Ph.D. Neal Newfield.

We cannot stop thinking because deep in our subconscious is a profound urge to comprehend the world around us. The purpose of thinking is to understand things better to make better judgments about how to survive, live, and prosper.

By making excellent decisions, we can get things done smoothly and have plenty of time to enjoy life. Making poor decisions, we lose time trying to rectify our mistakes. It is even worse if we do not even have the opportunity to correct them.

No skill is as important or valuable as the ability to think things through, yet it is a skill that requires self-awareness to master. And the greater the value something offers, the more harm it may cause on the other edge of the sword.

Many HR organizations have included Critical Thinking in the list of most crucial skills since 2020. But do you know the other side of Critical Thinking?

Critical Thinking and Overthinking

There is still no precise definition for the concepts related to psychology — human behavior. If you are interested, you can take the time to read all of the available research on Google. If you do not have time, below is what I summarized from my perspective and personal experience.

Critical Thinking

It is the systematic and analytical thinking process to understand, plan, implement, and evaluate what one is doing. Critical thinking aims to identify and comprehend all the positive and negative aspects of a problem before coming up with a solution. We can then make the most sensible decisions in the situation.

Overthinking

It happens when you cannot seem to quit thinking about something. You keep repeating the same thoughts over and over again. If you are looking for solutions yourself, you will always only see their limitations and dare not choose. If you are having a discussion, it will end without specific actions because you cannot broaden your thinking.

Since they are all mental processes, they are prone to becoming confusing or swapping positions after a while. And the worst-case scenario is when critical thinking turns into overthinking.

When does Critical thinking turn into Overthinking

When we spend too much time focusing on the problem rather than the answers to it.

Ex: In the morning, I went down to the underground car park, found a punctured tire, and could not be in time for an important meeting.

Overthinking: “Oh my god, how unlucky, I was in a hurry, and the tire was punctured. It was fine last night. Is it because someone hates me then blows my tire? But the motorbike is at the B2, how can I bring it up to repair? Why do I only encounter bad things like this at important times? This life works in a way that keeps you down.”

Critical Thinking: “To get to work on time, I have to take Grab service. But I don’t know how to fix it so I can go to work tomorrow. The motorbike is in basement B2, and I can’t pull it up, so I have to find a tire repair service at home. I’ll surf online later to find out if there’s such a service. If not, I’ll have to take Grab service and ask around the repair shops. If they can follow me home to fix it, at best, I’ll pay a little more.”

When we overthink problems with negligible probabilities.

Ex: While designing the reservation function, you consider when the user will be traveling with their pet and develop a process to purchase pet food. This action may cause the reservation to take longer to complete, increasing the possibility of users dropping out.

In application design, it is overthinking about users’ unusual demands.

When we keep thinking about things we cannot control.

Ex: Fear it’s going to rain, fear of getting wet, being late for an appointment, not being able to get clothes that are drying, dirty and slippery roads, easy to fall off the motorbike.

When we forget the limits of the problem we have.

Ex: Early tomorrow morning, I have to deliver the logo design to the customer. But at 3 a.m, I am still working hard to think of more “wow” ideas to feel satisfied.

Dangerous effects of Overthinking

Overthinking has various negative mental health consequences, including depression, insomnia, excessive anxiety, burnout, etc. I will concentrate on the work aspect in this article. The dangerous effects are:

• Overthinking produces negative emotions and makes you lose focus on finding solutions. Critical thinking, on the other hand, can lead to practical actions.
• Overthinking creates unnecessary stress. Stress will make it troublesome for us to control our emotions, cause discomfort to others, and affect our teamwork ability.
• Overthinking can keep a project from being completed within the constraint: time, cost, and quality that delivers value.
• Overthinking makes you only want to care about other people’s judgments or focus on the fear of being accused, doing wrong. And you will always feel that what you do is not good enough. Then, you lose confidence in your work.

How to Stop Overthinking

As mentioned at the beginning of the article, stopping overthinking is similar to how to think better. You can only start it by building better awareness:

• Always start with the project’s goals and limitations: these elements are essential for knowing when to stop thinking and move on.
• There is no perfect solution: recognizing all unimplemented solutions are all only guesses. Get to work quickly, and you will see an opportunity to make things better.
• Once you have identified the problem, focus on thinking about the solution for it. Set a deadline for the answer, and when the deadline comes, be content with the answers you get.
• When in doubt, ask someone whose abilities that you trust. And ask because you want a different perspective, not just to find information to support your thinking. This action can easily lead to controversial or uncomfortable situations.
• Finally, answer the question: “Is what I am thinking worth thinking about?”.

Final thoughts

Thinking a lot about goals or difficulties at work shows that you are enjoying the job. It also represents concentration and dedication to what you are doing.

So if someone yells at you and says: “You’re overthinking, stop it!” then stay calm. Maybe they have a reason to say that. Think about this article to see if we are overthinking or not?

• If yes? Acknowledge and thank the person for the warning, and avoid repeating it.
• If not? Please, feel free to ask more questions to clarify why they say that because they may know information that we are not aware of.

Finally, if you are an overthinker, you can also do well in critical thinking because you easily empathize with people and their problems. However, if you lack ingenuity in thoughts, it will waste energy, making you tired and always overloaded in life.

“To think is easy. To act is difficult. To act as one thinks is the most difficult of all.” — Goethe