Don’t rethink what you’ve already thought through once. When you capture an idea, make a decision, or process a piece of information, that mental work is done. Yet many of us fall into the trap of cycling through the same thoughts repeatedly, like running a washing machine on clothes that are already clean. This habit of rethinking drains our mental energy, fragments our focus, and keeps us from moving forward on what actually matters.
Why Rethinking Is Bad
Just as re-washing clean clothes is pointless, rethinking about anything is pointless as well.
This is not to say that considering an issue with more or new information is bad. What it means is to have the same thoughts more than once, with no change, is the same as re-washing clothes as soon as they are clean.
Rethinking is just a waste of brain cycles.
A Rethinking Example
Let’s say that you are in the bathroom in the morning and notice you are getting low on shampoo. “I need to remember to get more shampoo,” you think. This is a good thing. With that reminder, you are putting it into your memory for processing.
But you don’t write it down. So as you are walking into work you notice someone’s wet hair and you think, “I need to remember to get more shampoo.” As you are waiting for lunch, you are perusing a magazine and think it again. As you are watching television that night you see an ad and think it again. Now if you persist in not writing it on a shopping list, the thought will pop up at random times, like during a presentation you are giving, or during your morning exercise.
Adding multiple brain cycles didn’t get you any closer to getting the shampoo. All it did was waste your time and energy reminding you of something you already knew, but your brain also knew you would forget.
Now multiply that by the dozens of things you tell yourself you need to remember every day. It all adds up to distraction and fractured concentration.
The Two Rules to Break Rethinking
Luckily, it is easy to get out of this pattern of thinking. Two rules is all it takes, but you have to do them consistently.
Rule #1: Get Everything Out Of Your Mind
In order to stop the rethinking where it starts, you need to get those random thoughts out of your mind. And I don’t mean just to push them off, but to put them in a place where you will be able to recall them when you need them.
David Allen calls these “trusted systems” — putting them where they will be processed into the appropriate place later – but I am a fan of putting things where they need to go immediately. So instead of writing down “buy shampoo” on a to-do list, I would put it into the shopping list so I would know it is there when I am shopping.
In order to make this work, you have to have your various bits with you pretty much all the time. This means taking advantage of the wonderful amount of technology at our finger tips. (Think, “Hey Siri, remind me to buy shampoo”) If you don’t have it with you, then you need to have one place where you put all these things, and commit to entering them into the right places as soon as you can.
Rule #2: Don’t Break Your Promises To Your Mind
The second rule is the most crucial. Once you have started to put things in a place where you will find them when you need them, you can’t backslide. Your brain has to trust that things will be put where they need to be, or it won’t trust you, and will continue to remind you of the things. (More on this below).
If you tell yourself you will write or record or somehow capture all these thoughts, then you must consistently do it, and have backup systems in place that are just as reliable for when you can’t put things where they need to go. No “I’ll do it later” or “I’m sure I’ll remember this later” or “It’s such a little thing…”
Getting Yourself Out of the Rethinking Habit
Rethinking is a habit that is brought on by not putting things into the places they need to go. And because it is a habit, it can be replaced with something else.
For the first few days (or weeks, depending on how deeply entrenched you are in this habit), you will need to make sure you put everything into the proper place…and when the thought resurfaces, remind yourself you have already taken care of it.
Eventually it will stop when your brain begins to trust the new way of doing things.
In Conclusion
If you get everything out of your mind and make sure you are consistent, you will drop your rethinking to almost nothing. That will free up your brain cycles for much more productive things!
Articles In The Series:
