Control your overthinking using these 4 methods

Our brain is an incredibly powerful aspect of who we are, to the extent that it often takes more control of ourselves than we're aware. However, the fact that you're reading this article is evidence that you've built yourself enough self-awareness to notice that overthinking is a barrier you'd like to solve, or at least gain some control over.

Falling into the state of overthinking can significantly limit our progress in various aspects of our lives, including Career, Confidence, Mental Well-being, Physical Health, Money Management, and our Relationships with family, friends, colleagues, partners, and even strangers.

Feeling overwhelmed by overthinking is relatively common these days, especially when we live in a world with constant distractions pulling us away from a place where we can properly gather our thoughts and make decisions with a solid level of clarity.

It's therefore vital that we develop a strategy or two to help us become free from this weight around our shoulders that's preventing us from making progress.

This article will outline three methods that you could use to take control of your overthinking and start moving forward at a pace that works for you.

The one-minute rule

The first of these methods is centred around a one-minute rule. You could label it as such, or give it whatever title is memorable to you. The practice is more important than the label.

The way this method works is by giving yourself just one minute to take even the smallest of actions towards solving the issue. This small action could be as simple as starting an important email, throwing out a piece of junk or the top layer of unneeded paperwork, or something else similarly small. Whatever it is, it's a start, and you can gradually build momentum from there.

It's absolutely not necessary to know what the full solution looks like, because that's allowed to change as you go along. If you take one step, then you're already closer to the end, and have got one less decision on your plate too. All you need to figure out is the next step, rather than every single step. This takes significant pressure off of yourself, giving you more space to think clearly, instead of getting overwhelmed by the whole issue.

By using this one-minute rule you'll be able to continually make progress with any problem that may have previously been a barrier for you.

Reframing your mindset

The second method is reframing your mindset away from imagined facts based on little to no evidence, and instead gathering real data through experimentation.

This isn't a scientific level of experimenting, it's more about testing things out to see what happens. You don't have to feel pressured to get these tests correct, because they're only tests. Whatever the outcome of each test, you can use that information and feedback to make any adjustments you need before running another test.

The fear of failure can be a major cause of overthinking, but the mindset of tests can significantly limit our risk, leaving us free to move forward without that fear weighing us down. For example, using a similar example from the first method, writing an important email, taking it one line at a time you can continually test how it flows before you eventually send it. You can make various changes to each sentence until you're happy with it. There's no external pressure to write it perfectly or quickly, and without this pressure, it's likely that you'll be able to think more clearly too.

Limit yourself

The next method to control overthinking is to give yourself a time limit of only five or 10 minutes to go through all of your thoughts, concerns, worries, and fears, then stop when your time is up. This method allows the mind to process all the imagined outcomes holding you back, and gain perspective that it's not reality. When your alarm goes off to draw an end to your rumination, you can reconnect to the real world without the burden of fear getting in your way.

This is something that I've used myself many times, as I'm not perfect and also get caught out overthinking at times, but as soon as I notice what's happening I pull myself up and tell myself that my fears aren't real, then I can refocus my thoughts on planning around reality.

Sometimes this plan requires a conversation with a third party because they don't have my fears holding them back, which is something I often do with my coaching clients too. Limiting your time to worry is an extremely effective way of controlling overthinking and moving forward once more.

The 5-5-5 rule

The final method to overcome overthinking is known as the 5-5-5 rule, which again you can label as you prefer.

As I mentioned earlier, the overwhelm from choices we make and the potential repercussions from them, is often a major factor in getting trapped in a state of overthinking, as our powerful brain can convince us that our thoughts are real. This method can help us bring our imagination into focus by asking ourselves if this issue will matter in five minutes, five weeks, or five years.

If we're honest with ourselves then it's likely that it may not even matter in five minutes and it can be a loud wake-up call for our subconscious mind to realise that what we're worrying about really doesn't matter at all.

Final thoughts

Breaking free from our subconscious thoughts is the key in all 4 of these methods, as that's where we're trapping ourselves when we overthink. Overcoming overthinking is a common barrier that I work through with many of my coaching clients, with the above methods being the basis for many of the approaches I use.

If you're struggling with overthinking and aren't making progress using the above methods, so would like some third-party support, consider coaching as a way to achieve a more productive life.