31.10.26 – Blog 5A [1/2] — Day 7
When more thinking stops adding value
You need to make an ordinary decision. Perhaps you are choosing a meeting time, replying to an email or deciding which task to begin.
You compare the options. Then you compare them again.
“What if the other option is better?”
“What if someone disagrees?”
“What if I regret this later?”
Eventually, a small decision occupies more time than the task itself.
Careful thinking is valuable. Important choices deserve relevant information, discussion and enough time.
The difficulty is recognising when careful thinking has become repeated checking.
Consider an email about a routine meeting. You have checked the date, the purpose and the recipients. Yet you keep rewriting the opening sentence because you cannot be certain how everyone will interpret it.
At this point, another revision might add very little useful information.
One helpful question is: “Am I improving this decision, or trying to remove every possibility of discomfort?”
Those are different aims. You can often improve a decision. You usually cannot guarantee that nobody will disagree or that you will never wish you had chosen differently.
It also helps to notice the importance of the choice.
Choosing a time for a routine team discussion is not the same as signing a major contract. Decisions involving health, substantial money or legal obligations need an appropriate level of care and, when necessary, qualified advice.
Ordinary, reversible decisions generally allow more room to learn and adjust.
For example, you can try a new arrangement for your desk and change it later. You do not need to find the perfect arrangement before moving the first item.
Today, notice one small decision that you repeatedly reopen. Write down what makes the choice acceptable and what information would genuinely change it.
This prepares you for Part B: setting a reasonable stopping point before you start comparing.
The aim is not to become careless or impulsive. It is to match the amount of thinking to the importance of the decision.
Dr. Sudhir Arora, MBBS
Mind Mastery Mentor
Disclaimer: Dr. Sudhir Arora, MBBS is NOT a psychiatrist. This article is for general educational purposes only and is NOT a substitute for appropriate medical, surgical or psychiatric health care—whether routine or emergency care.
