Wednesday 7 November 2012

Analysis Paralysis

Definition from wikipedia
The term "analysis paralysis" or "paralysis of analysis" refers to over-analyzing (or over-thinking) a situation, or citing sources, so that a decision or action is never taken, in effect paralyzing the outcome. A decision can be treated as over-complicated, with too many detailed options, so that a choice is never made, rather than try something and change if a major problem arises. A person might be seeking the optimal or "perfect" solution upfront, and fear making any decision which could lead to erroneous results, when on the way to a better solution.

Have I reached such paralysis state. This year has been a year of such turmoil and changes that I have started to fear what else can be in store for me in the coming days. 

This Sunday I realized that I have just been  sitting, thinking, analyzing about what happened in these past months. And all this thinking is hampering me in taking any step forward. 

I had decided to quit my job as it was becoming a bottleneck in my fertility treatments. It was done after much deliberation and had seemed the best & perfect plan. But looking back I think I could have found alternatives rather than leaving my work. I am still contemplating whether I should get back to a full time job or not. 

I have also not been able to make any further decision on what I should do for my fertility issue. What alternative should I choose, which way should I move... Lately I am leaving just one day at a time without any thought of the future. But if I continue like this I will not achieve anything. And I do not want to have a regret in future of wasting my time. 

I have formulated some ways for myself to move away from my inactivity in life and getting back into doing something constructive and meaningful:
  1. Plan, but do not try to plan too far into the future as that will definitely change. Plan for near future and make a pragmatic plan which lets you achieve your milestones.  Planning is good but too much can be as crippling as not enough. Keep your momentum. Stay with the plan of what you are going to do and do it.
  2. Set a deadline and force yourself to stick to it. More often than not, I used to shift the deadline for all my personal plans citing one or the other excuse on why I cant achieve it. No more! If I have to go to the bank for reviewing my investments, I will do it on the day I had planned and not postpone it for next day. If I want to educate myself on a topic, I will set a deadline by which I should have gained knowledge on it.
  3. Force myself away from the distractions. One of my bad habits has been getting distracted too soon and too much. As soon as I sit down for some task, I tend to remember all other inconsequential chores that I should do before getting on with the task, resulting in the said task not getting done at all. 

Has it helped me? I guess I am improving. I am a volunteer in couple of non-profit technology and management forums, and I had picked up some tasks there. I had been lingering on them for the past few weeks, not been able to make any progress. Since the past week, I have started to take small steps in getting those tasks done. And having set deadlines for what the tasks that I want to do on those forums, I am confident that they will be done.
Similarly I am sure one day I will be able to come to my decision on which path should I take on my "wanting to be a mother" journey. The first step is the one which takes most time and from then on you have to keep going.

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