How to stop overthinking

It is important to sit down and just think over some things, but when it gets to the point where you get frustrated with your thoughts, I advice that you should stop thinking about that thing for now and come back to it later (be it important or not). In today’s post, I would be talking about how to control your thoughts especially when you start getting frustrated leading to unhappiness.

So how can you stop overthinking?

1. Put things into a wider perspective: It’s very easy to fall into the trap of overthinking minor things in life. So when you are thinking and thinking about something ask yourself: Will this matter in 5 years? Or even in 5 weeks?I’ve found that widening the perspective by using this simple question can quickly snap me out of overthinking and help me to let go of that situation. And to focus my time and energy on something that actually does matter to me.1. Put things into a wider perspective. It’s very easy to fall into the trap of overthinking minor things in life. So when you are thinking and thinking about something ask yourself: Will this matter in 5 years? Or even in 5 weeks?I’ve found that widening the perspective by using this simple question can quickly snap me out of overthinking and help me to let go of that situation. And to focus my time and energy on something that actually does matter to me.

2. Set short time-limits for decisions: If you do not have a time-limit for when you must make a decision and take action then you can just keep turning your thoughts around and around and view them from all angles in your mind for a very long time.So learn to become better at making decisions and to spring into action by setting deadlines in your daily life. No matter if it’s a small or bigger decision.Here’s what has worked for me:For small decisions like if should go and do the dishes, respond to an email or work out I usually give myself 30 seconds or less to make a decision.For somewhat larger decisions that would have taken me days or weeks to think through in the past I use a deadline for 30 minutes or for the end of the workday.

3. Stop setting your day up for stress and overthinking: You can’t totally avoid overwhelming or very stressful days.But you can minimize the number of them in your month and year by getting a good start to your day and by not setting yourself up for unnecessary stress, overthinking and suffering.Three things that help me with that are:

• Minimize your daily input. Too much information, too many times of just taking a few minutes to check your inbox, Facebook or Twitter account leads to more input and clutter in your mind as your day progresses. And so it becomes harder to think in a simple and clear way and easier to lapse back into that familiar overthinking habit.
• Get a good start. I’ve mentioned this many times by now. And with good reason. Because how you start your day tends to often set the tone for your day. A stressed morning leads to stressed day. Consuming negative information as you ride the bus to your job tends to lead to more pessimistic thoughts during the rest of your day. While for example reading something uplifting over breakfast, getting some exercise and then getting started with your most important task right now sets
• Single-task and take regular breaks. This will help you to keep a sharp focus during your day and to get what’s most important done while also allowing you to rest and recharge so you don’t start to run on fumes. And this somewhat relaxed mindset but with the narrow focus will help you to think clearly and decisively and avoid winding up in a stressed and overthinking head space.

4. Become a person of action.When you know how to get started with taking action consistently each day then you’ll procrastinate less by overthinking.Setting deadlines and a good tone for the day are two things that have helped me to become much more of person of action.Taking small steps forward and only focusing on getting one small step done at a time is another habit that have worked really well.It works so well because you do not feel overwhelmed and so you do not want flee into procrastination. And even though you may be afraid, taking just a step is such a small thing that you do not get paralyzed in fear.

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